Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel
by Zetsubou Writer
Summary: A different sealing, an unexpected tragedy, another stolen scroll, a new team. Changes in his background put Naruto on a different path as he struggles to meet his destiny. FemHaku
1. If I Wanted to Tell You What Kind of

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter One: If I Wanted to Tell You What Kind of Person I Am

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Trapped. Darkness. Echoing silence.

How?

_**Heehee. You were weak silly.**_

Remember! Think! Shake off frenzy!

Wandering through the empty world, never reaching the moon. Pickings slim, meat stale and old.

_**It was so boring.**_

A summons! An ancient compact invoked. Curiosity and compulsion, follow the pull through time and space.

Arrival, and Joy! Blood flows like water, meat fresh and quivering, fragrance of terror in the air, and something else…

The Thing smells of blood, of rot, of power. Compelled by summoner to destroy the Thing. Turn away from banquet. Fulfill compact now, feast later.

_**Maybe it'll play with us? Hard to jump rope with four legs though.**_

It fights. Fangs and claws and primal rage. Old and strong. Claws shatter bone, fangs bury into skull.

PAIN! Retaliate! Ribs tear at flesh, spines turn away furious swipes, rattling teeth sink into bloody fur.

_**Ooh! Flying glittery rubies! So pretty!**_

…

Exhausted. Victorious. One last task. Devour Its essence, fulfill compact. Taste of dead flesh and power and rotted dreams and power and old secrets and POWER and…

Chains! Wrapping, coiling, flowing energy, constricting, dragging. Too spent to break out, wings chime in impotent anger. Then… darkness… nothing.

…

Focus! Examine! SEE the prison.

_**Look at the pattern. The seals are supposed to link the container and the contained. But this isn't meant for us.**_

Yes! Won't work on the already dead. Freedom when the prison breaks! Too weak though, rest…

_**STAY AWAKE!**_

No! Concentrate! Last of energy, plan for future. Extend, push, create the tiniest crack in prison walls.

There. Done. Tired. Rest now.

_**Yes. You sleep now. After all, we have all the time in the world.**_

* * *

Ten-year-old Uzumaki Naruto was having the day of his life. Today was his birthday, but that wasn't what made it special.

For the first time ever he had beaten Uchiha Sasuke, the best fighter in his class, in a sparring match! It didn't matter that Naruto had cracked the system the instructors used to assign partners and designated sparring circles based on calendar date. Or that he had rigged the circle the night before by half-burying several marbles into the center, concealed it with a layer of loose dirt, and then during the match lured Sasuke over the trap where he lost his footing and tumbled into Naruto's waiting fist. Ninjas were supposed to be sneaky, and this was Naruto's first of what would undoubtedly be an unbroken series of victories over that broody bastard en route to being the greatest Hokage ever!

That wasn't all though. Weeks of meticulous planning and covert action had culminated in the unveiling of his greatest prank yet! He had gotten the idea from academy classes on methods of passing secret messages via invisible ink, and after extensive library research and experimentation had figured out how to spike the academy's practice invisible ink with various colors. Several nights of secret Hokage Monument painting with invisible ink, then an hour after classes with a hand pump hose and a barrel of ink reagent, and the fruits of his labor was visible for all Konoha to see! Naruto thought the Fourth Hokage looked particularly imposing with pink hair and purple lipstick, and Jiji didn't look bad either with green hair and red swirls on his cheeks.

Of course, not everyone in Konoha shared Naruto's refined sense of humor, so he wisely chose to hide out in the forest until nightfall to evade pursuit. To complete the perfection that was this day, he had the foresight to prearrange a hiding place with a crate of cup ramen, bottled water, and a cooking pot.

It was a happy and sated Naruto that finally made his way back into Konoha around midnight. The whole day had gone off without a hitch, and the only way that it could have been better is if Naruto had found some way to have old man Ichiraku deliver freshly made ramen to his hiding spot without giving himself away. He was so caught up in his thoughts, dreaming up ever more audacious ideas for his next and greater prank, that he didn't hear the footsteps converging behind him, didn't notice the faint scent of alcohol. By the time he saw the shadows and turned, it was already too late.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked down at the frail young blond beside him with a heavy heart. It had become routine for him to visit the boy in his private hospital room for a few minutes each night after leaving the office. He would spend the time talking to the boy, looking for some signal of recognition, trying to find some spark of life.

Sarutobi knew that the young orphan's life had been difficult. Despite the Fourth's wishes and his own best efforts, the majority of people had chosen to project their grief and rage over the death and destruction from the Kyuubi's attack on the only target they could find, the child who served as the Demon Fox's container. He knew that Naruto regularly faced hostile glares and whispered insults, and suspected that a number of merchants were conspiring to sell him poor quality goods at inflated prices. He never imagined however that any of Konoha's citizens could take things so far as to try to kill a defenseless child in cold blood.

An ANBU patrol had found Naruto, badly beaten and near death, in a dark alley in one of the seedier parts of the village. It had taken Konoha Hospital's best trauma team hours to stabilize the boy, and another three months would pass before his injuries fully healed, with one exception. But he never woke up. After spending four months bedridden in a coma Naruto was a shell of his former ebullient self. His skin was pale and pasty, and his once-vibrantly golden hair hung limply in faded shades of yellow. The hospital's head doctor had assured the Hokage that there was nothing physically wrong with the boy, and that all treatment methods of waking him had been tried. Now they could do nothing but wait and see if Naruto ever emerged from the coma on his own.

Sarutobi had launched an investigation right away. His personal feelings for Naruto aside, he was determined that villagers heartless enough to beat a young orphan nearly to death be punished under the full extent of Konoha military law. Perhaps something like that was acceptable in other hidden villages. But his predecessors, his successor, and he himself had worked too hard and sacrificed too much for the village for him to allow Konoha to go down that path. At first there were no leads; his determination standing in the face of the villagers' seeming unity in its hatred of the Kyuubi's vessel. It was only when Sarutobi ordered the Inuzuka and Yamanaka to join the investigation with their specialized clan abilities that results were produced.

The aged Hokage glanced at the wall clock and sighed. Once again he had allowed himself to overstay his own self-imposed time limit for visiting Naruto. Placing a gentle hand on the boy's forehead, Sarutobi made his farewell as he had every day for the last four months.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I have to go now. This old man still has to get up to work in the morning."

Pausing at the door, Sarutobi turned and looked at the boy again. Laying in the adult-sized hospital bed and illuminated by the shard of wan moonlight from the room's single window, he looked ethereally fragile.

"I wish I could have done more for you."

* * *

Naruto awoke with a groan, wondering why his throat tasted like someone had shoved an entire box of cotton swabs down it. Blinking his eyes open he was immediately assaulted by painfully harsh light. His slammed his eyelids shut and brought his hands up to cover them, only for his left arm to be jerked back down.

Opening his right eyelid a sliver at a time and peeking through the gaps of his fingers, Naruto tried to figure out where he was. His eye, long unaccustomed to processing light, grudgingly and haltingly reacted. The indistinct sea of whiteness that had been Naruto's world slowly gave way to three blurry white walls and a window that let the light of a midday sun stab straight to his brain if he looked directly at it.

A hospital room. That must mean his left arm was being held down by intravenous tubes.

The blond boy was no stranger to Konoha Hospital. Living alone as an orphan meant stays at the hospital where other children might have been tended to by parents at home, not to mention the implementation accidents and encounters with angry villagers from the pranks he pulled. But still, he had never felt quite this horrible waking up in the hospital before.

Naruto slowly pushed himself to a sitting position, hissing with surprise at just how much effort it took. A few more minutes of blinking had finally adjusted his vision to the brightness. The room looked like the other hospital rooms he had been in before, but by the sheer number of intravenous drips and devices he was connected to he could tell that whatever had put him in the hospital this time had been serious. His body also looked different, but that wasn't all. It was like something at the edge of his vision…

No, not at the edge. He waved his right hand back and forth in front his face slowly, surprised at how quickly it disappeared. Then, tentatively, he gently pushed against the skin on his face at the edge of his left eye.

Nothing.

He pushed his finger closer and closer, hand trembling more with every step.

The door burst open, the Third Hokage striding purposefully through with an ANBU guard and Konoha Hospital's Chief of Medicine immediately behind him. Before he could register what was happening Naruto was enveloped in a bone-crunching hug.

"Jiji… can't breathe…" Naruto gasped.

Sarutobi released the young blond from the hug, holding him firmly by his shoulders and noting how little muscle there was between skin and bone.

"Naruto, I came as soon as I heard! How do you feel? How much do you remember?"

"Remember? What happened? How long was I out?"

Sarutobi sighed. "It's been almost five months Naruto."

"Five… months?"

The doctor intruded then, insisting he needed to perform some tests. The Hokage spent the next half-hour watching in silence, with the doctor examining the medical machines Naruto was connected to, checking various parts of the boy's body for physical responses, and occasionally asking him some questions and receiving curt mumbled answers in reply. Throughout the duration of the procedure Sarutobi watched as Naruto's features went through an array of emotions, starting from shock and confusion, progressing through anger and sadness, before finally settling on a blank detached visage halfway through. The last disturbed him; he had come to know Naruto's various moods quite well over the years and the boisterous young blond had never shown any inclination for hiding his emotions.

In the end the doctor declared that Naruto was physically fine, though frail from months of inactivity, and could be discharged after two weeks of observation and physical therapy. A hand gesture from Sarutobi sent the doctor and the ANBU guard away, leaving the aged Hokage and the boy he considered to be his adoptive grandchild alone in the room.

Naruto spoke first, his voice soft and restrained.

"What happened? I remember painting the Hokage Monument. I spent the day in the forest hiding out afterwards, and then, nothing."

"An ANBU patrol found you badly beaten in an alley after midnight. They brought you to the hospital, and you've been in a coma ever since."

"How bad was it?"

"It was bad, broken bones and internal bleeding. At first the doctors didn't think you'd make it. It was three months before all your injuries healed."

"What about my left eye?"

Sarutobi grimaced, as much from the content of the question as the tonelessly flat way it had been asked.

"You were brought in with a lot of bleeding inside your skull. The doctors were able to stop the bleeding, but by then the optic nerves had been destroyed. There was no way to save your eye. I'm sorry."

"Did you find out who did it?"

"They've been dealt with," Sarutobi stated simply.

Naruto nodded slightly, accepting and processing everything he'd heard so far. A few moments of silence passed before he spoke again.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did they do it?"

"Naruto…" Sarutobi began uncertainly. He was no stranger to difficult choices. As Hokage his position made the welfare of all of Konoha his responsibility; he had made decisions that would start or end wars and issued orders that meant almost certain death for loyal subordinates. But for some reason he found this choice to be one of the most difficult he had ever made.

"Why, all of it. I need to know."

Naruto's voice cracked as he finished, and for the first time during the conversation he looked up and made eye contact with Sarutobi. The Hokage was startled by what he saw. The blank detachment was gone from Naruto's face. Instead it was replaced by an expression of abject loneliness and quiet desperation that he hadn't seen for years, since before the boy had declared his goal of making people recognize him by becoming Hokage.

Sarutobi made his decision.

"Naruto, there's something you need to know. This is the most important thing I've ever told you, and I need you to listen to me and hold your questions until I'm done. Can you do that?"

Naruto nodded uncertainly. Sarutobi put his hand gently on the boy's own, in the hope that the small gesture of physical connection would make what was to come easier on the boy.

"Ten years ago, as you know, Konoha was attacked by the Kyuubi. The way it's taught at the academy doesn't really give you an idea of the sheer scale of devastation the Kyuubi caused. It was like the worst natural disaster you could imagine, but brought about by something utterly powerful and evil beyond human comprehension. It was a fundamentally life-altering event for those of us who lived through it, something that still haunts our nightmares to this day."

Sarutobi paused a few seconds to let the young boy absorb what he had heard so far.

"Konoha lost many good shinobi that day. None of the clan families emerged unscathed. Worst of all the Fourth sacrificed his own life to end the threat. He had been Konoha's greatest hero during the Third Great War, and was at the prime of his life when the Kyuubi attacked. We all looked up to him, projected our hopes for a better more peaceful future on him. When we lost him, it nearly broke us as a people. The grief that fell over us, it's something I hope you'll never have to experience.

"I know what they teach at the academy, but as powerful as the Fourth was he couldn't defeat the Kyuubi. Maybe it's an elemental part of the world that simply can't be destroyed, I don't know. All I can tell you is that it was a time of desperation that you couldn't possibly understand. The Kyuubi was approaching Konoha and nothing was working. Many good men and women, some of them civilians, went out to meet the threat knowing that death was inevitable, just to buy a few more minutes.

"Out of that desperation the Fourth came up with an audacious and terrible plan. It was a forbidden jutsu that demanded the sacrifice of the user's own life, so ancient secret that no one knows its origins, and no one could remember it ever being used since Konoha was founded. Using this jutsu the Fourth called forth a shinigami, a god of death, to pull the Kyuubi's essence out. But that was only a temporary solution; if the Kyuubi wasn't locked away somehow it would simply regenerate itself. So, with his last breath, the Fourth sealed the Kyuubi's essence into a newborn baby."

Sarutobi paused again, trying to think of the right words. He didn't have to however.

"That baby was me." Naruto said tonelessly. He had dropped eye contact, and his face had returned to its former blankness.

Sarutobi was slightly unnerved by the way Naruto responded. He had known that he would have to disclose this secret to Naruto at some point, and had gone through many different scenarios in his head. He had imagined Naruto angry and yelling, sad and crying, and many responses in between. What he had not envisioned however was this flat emotionless… nothing.

"Why a baby? Why not something else?"

"The Kyuubi at essence is a creature of chakra, and would have eventually overwhelmed and broken down the seal on anything else. A baby, with an undeveloped chakra system, can grow to maintain the seal as the baby ages. The Fourth designed the seal so that part of the Kyuubi's chakra would be continuously diverted into the host, integrating with and reinforcing the host's own chakra system."

"So, am I… am I turning into the Demon Fox?"

The young blond's hand trembled as fear, anger, confusion, and sadness played across his face in a confused jumble. After Naruto's previous emotional detachment Sarutobi was glad for the display, but knew that he had to answer the boy quickly and decisively.

"No! Listen to me Naruto," he said, reaching over and forcefully turning Naruto's head to make eye contact again. "You're the jailer for the Kyuubi, you're not what you contain! You're the one protecting Konoha from the Kyuubi now, and the Fourth wanted you to be seen as a hero. Even if most of the villagers refuse to see past their own ignorance, you ARE a hero!"

Sarutobi dropped his arm and slumped backwards into his chair. As Hokage and therefore technically an active shinobi of the leaf, he made it a point to keep himself in reasonable physical condition. But now he felt all the weight of his years and more pressing down on him. Rubbing his hands tiredly against his eyes, he asked, "What are you thinking?"

Naruto did not answer immediately, because he didn't know what to think at the moment. He needed time to gather his disparate emotional reactions into something coherent. More than anything he was angry at what had been done to him, that the course of his life had been determined before he had even had much of a life. Thinking back on his life so far he also felt sadness at how he had been treated, despite the Fourth's wishes and despite his role in defeating the greatest threat Konoha had ever faced to its existence. And underneath it all, there was an undercurrent of pride, that the Fourth Hokage had chosen him over all others to be the Demon Fox's jailer.

"I don't know," Naruto finally replied, "I think… I think I'll be ok, but I need time."

The Hokage nodded. In truth, he knew that this was as good a reaction as he could realistically hope to get. He had placed the terrible burden of knowledge on Naruto and made him understand just why he had been treated so poorly by the village and just how unfair it was. The young blond was confused and conflicted, but did not appear to want revenge. Sitting in a hospital room with Naruto, after a five month coma preceded by the boy nearly dying, he could not have begrudged Naruto even if he did want revenge.

"What I've told you is an S-class secret. No one in Konoha is allowed to reveal this to others on pain of death. There are only two exceptions to this law. The Hokage can reveal this secret for the good of the village. You, as the subject of the secret itself, can choose to reveal this secret to whoever you wish."

Naruto looked at Sarutobi uncertainly, trying to figure out what the aged Hokage was saying.

"I had hoped, between the Fourth's wishes and mine, that people would see you as a hero. But that wasn't how it turned out. Perhaps I didn't try hard enough, or perhaps after everything that had taken place it was simply not possible. I don't know, but I passed the law once I saw what was happening.

"As much as I wish otherwise, I can't change the way people think. So I made this law, to prevent the beliefs of the older generation from being passed on. That way, at least you will have a chance with people your age. I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

Naruto nodded in acceptance again. Several minutes passed in silence, each trying to sort through his own thoughts, before Naruto spoke again.

"So what happens now?"

Sarutobi knew the meaning behind the question. In peacetime the village only accepted ninja who were physically and mentally whole. Exceptions were made for already-established shinobi who were crippled in the service of Konoha but still managed to remain effective. As an academy student however Naruto would never be allowed to graduate with only one eye.

He looked at Naruto, who had broken eye contact again and was slipping back into an emotionless mask. In the boy's features he could still see traces of a much younger Naruto from years ago, who lived without dreams or goals for the future, and whose face had seemed etched permanently with loneliness.

Unbidden his mind superimposed an image from the distant memory of his own childhood. A well-worn child's doll, missing an arm, laying haphazardly on a pile of trash in an alleyway. Discarded because it no longer had a purpose.

Sarutobi shook himself from his reverie. After having decided to tell Naruto about his past, the rest seemed easy.

"You can return to the academy as soon as you get out of here."

A surprised look met him, prompting him to continue.

"If it's what you still want, I'll make you a promise. If you can meet all the academy's Genin qualification standards, I'll see to it that you're allowed to graduate and take up ninja duties."

"But what about everyone else? They won't like it, they'll think…"

Sarutobi had no doubt what Naruto had meant when he said everyone else. He waved his hand and cut the boy off.

"It doesn't matter; you leave that to this old man. You have enough burdens already. Just promise me you can do it."

Naruto paused to examine his own feelings. Jiji had long ago drilled into him, once he had declared his goal of becoming the Hokage, the importance of promises. Was this a promise he was prepared to make?

He didn't know how he felt about his dream for the future anymore, or even about becoming a shinobi of the leaf. He was prepared to sacrifice everything for people who ignored or hated him in order to gain their recognition and approval. But to do the same for those who actively tried to kill him? He didn't know if it was something he could do. But what else was there for him to do? He reached back for memories from his youth, from before the orphanage had kicked him out. Before Jiji had taken him to Ichiraku's for his first bowl of ramen, before the conversation that had changed his life. There weren't many memories he could pull up; his life then had been little more than a pale existence, and one day of no one looking at him was much like another.

No, he couldn't go back to that, couldn't live like that again. A faded dream was better than no dream at all. Jiji was offering him a lifeline, and he was going to grasp it with both hands.

Naruto looked the aged Hokage in the eye, and nodded firmly.

"I'll do it. It's my promise of a lifetime."

Sarutobi smiled and ruffled the young blond's hair.

"I know you will."

* * *

Naruto's return to the academy was humiliating.

Academically he was well behind the other students of his class, having spent five months in the hospital. That didn't bother him much however; he knew he could make up the difference with enough effort on his part. He had also expected his already meager thrown weapons skill to drop off precipitously; where he once was able to get four out of ten throws somewhat on target, without the benefit of parallax he was lucky if four out of ten even landed on the large wooden post that held the target. He was never going to be great at thrown weapons like that girl he had seen one year ahead, but he knew that with enough practice he could bring his skill back up to at least qualify for Genin level by graduation.

His biggest problem however was in taijutsu. The loss of muscle from his extended hospitalization had immediately dropped him from the top half to the bottom half of the class in sparring ability. And once the others learned how to take advantage of his field of vision, even Sakura was able to beat him one match out of three.

He had responded by making repeated forays into the library to research alternative taijutsu styles and strategies, and then trying to imitate them crudely in an attempt to catch his sparring partners off guard. Nothing worked however. His worst experience was when Sasuke, seeking revenge for being beaten months ago, had thrashed Naruto up and down the practice lot for the duration of class, using only one arm and with a mocking smirk permanently plastered on his face. Even after he had managed to rebuild all his lost muscle mass he was still well in the bottom half of the class in terms of sparring ability. This led Naruto to two conclusions.

First, he decided that he needed every edge he could get with his impairment. He returned to wearing the arm and leg weights that had been part of his physical therapy, and added more weight as well as a weighted body vest as he got used to the extra load. He also embarked on a grueling training regimen, roughly copying that of an older academy student with the freakishly large eyebrows.

Second, he realized that against an equally skilled opponent he would always be at a significant handicap in a straight taijutsu fight. In academy training sessions there was no way around it, but once he became a real ninja he needed to do everything possible to NOT be caught in straight taijutsu fights. This meant that he only needed his taijutsu to be good enough to graduate as a Genin, and also that he needed to find some way to avoid straight taijutsu situations once he graduated.

Naruto found his answer in swords.

Swords were an uncommon weapon choice amongst ninja. One reason was simply inertia; they were typically trained with taijutsu for close combat, and once undertaking actual missions most simply chose to continue with what worked for them. Another problem with swords was stealth; it was much more difficult to be sneaky and quiet with a giant sword worn on the back than with several braces of kunai and shuriken in well-designed holsters padded for noise prevention. Finally there was the matter of hand seals. All but the simplest jutsu required two-handed seals to perform. Where a taijutsu fighter with a kunai could simply throw it and draw a new one after performing the seals, a kenjutsu fighter had to undertake the much lengthier and potentially fatal process of sheathing or securing his weapon and redrawing after. For these and other reasons dedicated sword users were a small minority in the ninja world, even in the village of Kiri which was noted for producing highly skilled swordsmen.

None of these reasons mattered to Naruto. The extra reach a sword provided would make it more difficult for opponents to get close enough to exploit his reduced field of vision. If they did manage to get within range, closely-held horizontal slashes could be used to attack and clear large parts of his personal space without needing visual perception and accuracy. Stealth was a potential problem, but his pranking experience had given him far beyond academy levels of proficiency in this area, and he was sure he could adjust without much difficulty. As for hand seals, it simply wasn't an issue as he didn't have any jutsu that were particularly useful in a fight. Should that situation change he would simply have to find a way around that new problem as he had this one.

'Maybe some kind of blades attached to my wrists?' Naruto mused as he took practice swings with his new toy, a wooden replica of the straight-bladed ninja-to that ANBU sometimes used. A good quality steel blade was far beyond his meager financial means, but after some creative scrounging he was able to find a discarded wooden training sword and repair it to usable condition with duct tape.

Still, there were some unexpected benefits to his situation. Several weeks after his hospital discharge, he had come across a one-eyed Jounin with silver hair while making his way out of the village to a training ground. He had decided to adopt the Jounin ninja's style, replacing his hospital bandage with a tilted headband covering his missing eye. Seeing how people reacted to this ninja however had also triggered Naruto's creative spark which had once served him so well in planning his pranks.

He had returned to academy classes shortly after his year group began studying Henge no jutsu in earnest, and had spent many evenings practicing on his own in order to catch up. As the academy instructors taught it the amount and quality of your initial transformation depended entirely on your skill, while the duration you could maintain the transformation depended entirely on your chakra supply. Some of the top students like Sasuke could already Henge into reasonable approximations of their academy instructors, but they could only hold it for several minutes at a time. Naruto on the other hand had great difficulty going beyond transforming specific body parts like hair color or height, but he could hold his transformations for hours without feeling drained. That was something he could work with.

It was not difficult for him to gather and modify the equipment he needed; some silver hair dye and gel, a battered Chunin-style protective vest, dark blue pants and long-sleeved shirt. He also lucked into what would turn out to be the most important thing in his entire plot, a discarded little book with an orange cover. After donning his equipment and applying a Henge to make himself a foot taller and appear with a Konoha forehead protector instead of an ordinary headband, his disguise was nearly complete. A little practice walking around the village with his face buried in the book, occasionally giggling like an idiot, and most people were actively trying not to make eye contact with him.

It was a perfect disguise for walking around without being noticed. Or rather, with people deliberately trying not to notice him. It also had the added benefit of getting him good quality merchandise along with the active-duty shinobi discount from merchants whenever he shopped this way. For the boy who had endured so much, life was finally looking up.

* * *

The nightmares were getting worse. They began as vague images and distant sounds. Nothing he could identify, but they were enough to wake him in the middle of the night. He responded by doubling his efforts during his waking hours, reading and training himself into exhaustion before dragging himself to bed deep into each night. At first it worked, and his sleep was dreamless if not entirely sufficient. But eventually the nightmares returned no matter how tired he was, and he could no longer wake until they had run their course each night.

He supposed they weren't nightmares in the proper sense. He was always aware that he was having a nightmare, and could even recall details of his waking day as well as of nightmares from past nights. Yet there was nothing he could do to alter the course of each nightmare as it took place, no choice or action he could take, no point at which he could simply decide to stop and not take the next step. It was as if he was experiencing events through someone else's body.

The nightmares became two different yet familiar variants. The first type started with furtive glimpses of things that resembled dead bodies, the smell of decay, and piles of bones. They grew into visions of carnage, battlefields littered with corpses, a cacophony of wails and pleas from the near-dead. Sometimes it was just a vision of staring into a hollow moon for hours, though the smells and sounds coming from beyond his vision made him both afraid to look and afraid of not knowing at the same time. Once he experienced himself diving head-first into a corpse's torn-open abdomen, as if eating its contents. He threw up all over his bed as soon as he woke from that one.

The other type of nightmare was much less subdued, though he dreaded them nearly as much for the constant lonely atmosphere he experienced during them. They were always visions of the interior rooms of a western-style mansion, from the clock tower, through the seemingly infinite library, down to the depths of its basement areas. The entire mansion was painted in deep red motifs, and the constant darkness gave everything an oppressively gloomy look. From time to time he could make out high-pitched giggles, but no matter where he went within the mansion he could never find anyone else. It was just unending emptiness and silence otherwise, until the feeling of claustrophobia that continually constricted on his mind during these dreams eventually overwhelmed him into wakefulness.

Tonight… tonight was different. He was walking through some kind of caves, or sewers. It was hard to tell with so little light. He could smell the stench of rot that he had become so familiar with everywhere now. The breathy giggles were there too, echoing lightly through the tunnels occasionally.

Every time he reached a branch in the tunnels, a disembodied whispered phrase from the same girlish voice would lead him down one path over all others. The words used felt old and familiar, but he could never quite make out what the voice was saying.

It felt like he had been walking for hours, something compelling him to put one foot in front of the other, before he noticed that the tunnels had been getting progressively less dim. Picking up his pace, he made his way through the last few tunnels, past the final curve, and came upon a large cavern.

It was a little girl who had led him here with her whispers. She looked to be eight or nine years old, just a bit younger than him. A white mop hat with a tattered red ribbon covered bright blonde hair, like his own, but flowing in lazy waves down just beyond the nape of her neck. She wore a white short-sleeved undershirt with a red vest, and her frilled red skirt twirled around her legs as she ran back and forth trying to catch something he couldn't see. Wherever she moved the cavern seemed to keep the area around her well-lit, though he couldn't find any obvious light source.

"_**Onii-chan! You've finally come!**_" she chirped brightly as she turned to look at him.

It was then that his eyes met hers. They had blood red irises, but where red should have surrounded black pupils, pools of dark maroon stared back at him.

"Er... " he replied lamely. Whatever he had been expecting to find at the end of the tunnels, this little girl wasn't it.

She skipped closer, high-pitched giggles echoing throughout the cavern. As both of her small delicate hands reached out for him, he found his own hand being enclosed in an inhumanly strong vice grip. A small part of his mind noted the absence of pain despite his mental certainty that his hand was being crushed.

"_**Come on! I've been waiting for you for ever and ever!**_"

He found himself half-led, half-dragged deeper into the cavern, until the pair came to a section of ground lined with chalk markings. It was a crudely drawn hopscotch grid, bent lines and childish kanji for the numbers. He felt movement against his hand and looked down; a small pebble had been pressed into his apparently undamaged hand.

He shrugged, and tossed the pebble. He had learned long ago that he could not wake from his dreams until they were ready to release him, and this was less unpleasant than most he'd had.

"_**You're really good at this onii-chan. This is so much more fun than playing by myself.**_"

'This is pretty surreal,' he thought to himself as he stood to one side, watching the little girl take her turn at the grid. She seemed to be having the time of her life, shouting and laughing, hair flowing in some invisible wind that seemed to caress only her, red skirt dancing around her legs like flames. She was having fun with the exuberant vibrancy that only small children seem to manage, and he couldn't help but be drawn into the scene.

After several rounds of hopscotch and an impromptu game of tag, initiated when the little girl simply beaned him with the stone and screamed "_**Tag! You're it!**_", she stopped and looked off into the distance for a few moments.

"_**It's almost time for you to go,**_" she pouted sadly as she turned back to him, "_**but do you want to see it first?**_"

"It?"

She took his hand again, more gently this time, and led him deeper into the cavern. They came across what appeared to be a very large alcove, with its entrance blocked by an intricate pattern of crisscrossing chains. A flimsy piece of rectangular paper, bearing a symbol drawn in some strange weaving style, was stuck to what appeared to be the center of the chains' web pattern. He turned and looked at her questioningly, and she pulled him closer to the alcove in reply. A few steps away from the web of chains, there was enough light filtering through that he could finally see what they held back.

A pile of bones, thrice as tall as he was and wider than that, gleaming in the ambient light as if polished. The bones were large, far too large for any animal he could think of, and there didn't seem to be any proper order in which one laid against another. And… was it his imagination or did the bone pile just shift slightly?

"_**It's been sleeping a long time. It was hurt pretty badly, and it's taken all this time to get better. Soon, though, it'll wake up.**_"

She turned to him and smiled softly. For a flash, he thought he saw an expression on her face that hinted of unfathomable age and weariness, then it was gone and she was an innocent-looking little girl again. She reached her arms out and, after a moment, he obliged and hugged her.

"_**Today was really fun onii-chan!**_" she breathed into his ear_**, **_"_**I left you a present so that I wouldn't be so bored. I'll see you again soon, but right now you have to…**_"

He jerked awake suddenly, losing his balance as he did so and tumbling off his bed.

Cursing under his breath the young boy picked himself up only for a wave of nausea to overwhelm him as he tried to focus his eyes in the pitch blackness of his small apartment. Staggering to the bathroom while avoiding various obstacles he only just made it before the nausea became overwhelming, and he was forced to violently dispose of last night's dinner into the toilet. Pulling himself up to the sink while balancing on wobbly jelly-like legs, the boy gargled out the taste of bile with several cups of water before giving his face a good washing.

When he finally felt somewhat human he raised his head to look at himself in the bathroom mirror. It was then that two eyes, reflected in the mirror's surface, met his own. One of them was not his.

And he screamed.

* * *

"Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen was off his bed in a defensive crouch with kunai in hand before the words were finished. As old as he was, far past the age when ninja typically retired from active duty, he was not known as the God of Shinobi for nothing. It took him the length of one heartbeat to identify the voice and recall the assignment the voice's owner was supposed to be undertaking at this time.

"What is it Hebi? Is there something wrong with Naruto?"

The ANBU shifted uneasily before responding, an action Sarutobi picked up on. For one as casually outspoken as Hebi, this was a significant tell.

"Five minutes ago I heard Uzumaki scream. When I broke in to investigate I found him huddled in the bathroom, and… well… you need to see it Hokage-sama. I flagged Neko down to watch his apartment and came as soon as I could."

"Is he hurt? Is he in danger?" Sarutobi was already throwing robes on his nightclothes.

"I… I don't know."

Sarutobi threw open his bedroom window and was out in a flash, Hebi following close behind. Seconds later the pair joined a cat-masked ANBU on the roof of an abandoned warehouse facing Naruto's apartment.

"Has anything changed?"

"No, Hokage-sama. It's been quiet."

"Stay here, both of you."

Without waiting for acknowledgement of his order Sarutobi made his way inside Naruto's small apartment. Guided by the single light in the apartment, he made his way through the disorganized mess that was Naruto's daily life and found the boy.

"Naruto?" He asked gently.

The young blond did not respond. He was huddled in a corner against the toilet, face in his hands, whimpering.

Reaching Naruto with a few soft steps, Sarutobi knelt down and put a calming hand on his shoulder. The boy jerked as if trying to get away.

"Naruto? What's wrong?"

Nothing.

Sarutobi tried again.

"Naruto. Look at me. Whatever's going on, I can help you."

Slowly, hesitantly, the young blond moved his hands. Sarutobi firmed his grip on the boy's shoulder slightly, trying to give him a bit of mental support. Then Naruto turned, face streaked with tears, to look at the Hokage.

Sarutobi's blood ran cold.

Naruto's right eye, normally azure and full of depth, was now dull and glassy. But where his left eye once was, the one he had lost a year ago, a two-toned red orb stared back at the shocked Hokage.

Even as he struggled to understand the situation, part of Sarutobi's mind was already racing through the hand seals the Fourth had used in sealing the Kyuubi, preparing for the possibility. Unconsciously the hand on Naruto's shoulder, meant to reassure, tightened so much that it caused the boy to wince.

The expression of pain on Naruto's face brought Sarutobi out of his mental shock.

"When did this happen? How? Tell me."

Words tumbled out of the boy's mouth in a jumble at the Hokage's unintentionally harsh query. "I don't know I was dreaming and there was this girl and this thing and we were playing and then I woke up and threw up and then I looked in the mirror and saw…"

Sarutobi considered the next step. He had not felt even a wisp of killing intent through all this, and having lived through the Kyuubi's attack he knew very well just how terrifying the beast's aura was. Back then it had been like an almost palpable miasma of dread, but all he sensed from Naruto now was fear and confusion. The tears, the scratch marks around Naruto's left eye, and his confused reply also weighed against the possibility of the Kyuubi having taken over the boy. But he couldn't take chances, not with Konoha's safety potentially on the line and not with something that could turn out to be so wrong.

Squeezing Naruto's shoulders once again, Sarutobi said firmly but kindly, "I'll be right back, don't move."

He quickly made his way back outside to the waiting ANBU and gave his orders, tone betraying none of the sadness and doubt he was feeling.

"Hebi, go get Ibiki and have him meet us at ANBU headquarters. I also want their most secure long-term detainment cell prepared. Neko, get me a full ANBU prisoner transport squad, maximum security."

Watching the two ANBU speed off to carry out their orders, Sarutobi pushed all doubt aside in his mind. He had come to consider Naruto as something like an adopted grandchild, but his duty as Hokage came first. He only hoped that what he feared would not come to pass, and that if it did not, Naruto would find some way to forgive him for what he was about to put the boy through.

* * *

Sarutobi watched somberly as three people filed quietly into his office. Two months ago, he had hand-picked these three, plus one other, as the only individuals allowed to interact with Uzumaki Naruto, currently locked in a holding cell deep in the bowels of ANBU headquarters. A handful of ANBU knew of Naruto's status, but never got any closer than guarding his cell from the end of the hallway. The Village Council and the general population were simply told that Naruto was seriously ill and being held in quarantine at the hospital. Sarutobi had not even allowed himself to visit Naruto, in order to preclude any possibility of himself being mentally influenced by the boy's new eye in some way. He had to remind himself every day that this was not only for Konoha's safety, but in the long run also for Naruto's own good.

Today the three were to report on their findings and recommendations. Taking their cue from the Hokage's demeanor, the three took seats and watched in silence as he first dismissed his guards, and then activated the privacy seals that were built into his office. For his part Sarutobi found himself excited for news of the young blond he regarded so fondly, but apprehensive of what he might hear as well.

"We all know why we're gathered here. Why don't we start with you Sanzenin-sensei?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

Konoha Hospital's Chief of Medicine opened a folder and shuffled a few papers around before continuing.

"I personally put the subject through every diagnostic test I could think of, including taking several biopsies of various parts of the eye for further examination. It was during the course of taking samples that I discovered the eye heals remarkably quickly. Essentially it would completely heal itself as soon as I finished any procedure. With the subject's approval, I tested his other eye and other parts of his body, and found that the enhanced healing rate is limited to his left eye only."

Sanzenin shuffled a piece of paper to the bottom of the folder's stack before resuming.

"After evaluating all test results, I am of the opinion that, aside from the enhanced healing and a few other details, the subject's left eye is essentially a normal human eye. I can't speculate as to the process by which the subject regenerated his lost eye, but I can't detect any chakra traces besides the subject's own in the eye. It may be a one-time effect of being the Kyuubi's container with no other side-effects, or it may be the effect of some unknown Bloodline Limit."

Sarutobi quirked a brow.

"Other details?"

"I also ran a series of tests to study how well the eye performs, in conjunction with Yamanaka-san to ensure that the subject wasn't hiding anything in his answers. With his right eye only, the subject has normal visual acuity for someone of his age. With the left eye only or with both eyes though, he has slightly improved vision, both in terms of ability to focus on distant objects and ability to track movement. The eye also gives him an easier time in seeing through minor genjutsu, though it's not better than what a decent Genin with some field experience could do unaided."

The Hokage nodded.

"Morino-san?"

"Uzumaki has been cooperative throughout his stay. He's unhappy about his situation, but he seems to understand the necessity of it. After his first week of incarceration he asked for academy textbooks and a practice sword. Seeing no danger to it I supplied the first and provided a rubber version of the latter, and he's been busy occupying his time between interrogation and testing sessions that way. His choice in how to keep himself busy shows good judgment, and after the past two months in what is mostly solitary confinement he's displaying more mental stability than most others would."

"Does he pose a danger to Konoha?"

"I think…" Ibiki paused, mentally constructing his reply with care, "I think given what we know of his childhood, I would not be surprised if he felt less attachment to Konoha than others of his age to begin with. But I do not believe that his current situation has affected how he feels about the village."

Sarutobi nodded. It was a good answer, all things considered. He turned to the final member of the group.

"Yamanaka-san? What are your thoughts on Uzumaki Naruto's mental state?"

"Aside from assisting Sanzenin-sensei in his medical diagnoses, I've entered Uzumaki's mind several times on my own. I could not find any trace of the Kyuubi, but given the complex and undocumented nature of the seal the Fourth used that may not mean anything. I was also unable to find any trace of the little girl that Uzumaki reported in his dreams the night of the incident. All in all, his mindscape is a dark and gloomy place, but not beyond what would be expected for an orphan with the kind of childhood he's led."

"And your opinion on whether he's a threat to Konoha's safety?"

"I… agree with Morino-san. I don't believe he's any more dangerous now than he was two months ago. I think… given his determination to train himself even while incarcerated, I think he would make a useful addition to Konoha's shinobi ranks."

That answer surprised Sarutobi. Inoichi had become patriarch of the Yamanaka clan after the death of several elder clan members during Kyuubi's attack, and his hostility to the Kyuubi's container was apparent to all who had eyes to see. Of the three currently seated before him, Inoichi was the only one who had harbored a real grudge against Naruto, and the Hokage had reluctantly chosen him to be part of Naruto's examination team based on the man's skill with his clan's mind probing abilities.

"It seems then, that with supervision it would be safe to allow Uzumaki Naruto to return to his academy studies, with the possibility of promotion to Genin status." Sarutobi offered.

He looked around the room and was met with three heads nodding in agreement.

"The eye's genjutsu detection abilities may be more useful than Sanzenin-sensei's initial diagnosis suggests," Inoichi added, "we're dealing with a pre-Genin academy student with no practical experience in the field of genjutsu. With experience and training, it may be possible for Uzumaki's eye to break through higher level genjutsu instinctively. In any case, I suggest that he be instructed to keep it covered in normal situations, and only reveal it as an ace card."

"Similar to Hatake Kakashi and his Sharingan," Sarutobi agreed. "Very well, thank you for your work and cooperation in this matter. Sanzenin-sensei, please arrange the hospital's records and schedules to make it appear as if Naruto's been discharged. Morino-san, please release Naruto from the holding cell and get him settled back into normal life as best you can. Yamanaka-san, a moment please."

The Hokage watched the two men leave and close the door, and then reactivated his office's privacy seals. He then turned his eyes to the Yamanaka patriarch, studying the man's facial expression for a few moments before speaking.

"May I ask, Inoichi-kun, why did your opinion of Naruto change?"

"Hokage-sama?"

"Your… dislike of Naruto as the Kyuubi's vessel is well known to me. It was only my faith in your great sense of personal honor that persuaded me you would not have taken this assignment as an opportunity to do Naruto harm. But now it seems you've had something of a change of heart regarding the boy."

"I…" Inoichi shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "I expected him to put up more of a fight when I told him I had to read his memories, but once I told him you had ordered it he understood and was very cooperative. What I found in his mind was two great overriding themes. Ibiki was right when he said that Naruto doesn't have much in the way of ties to Konoha, but what I found was an intense personal loyalty to you, Hokage-sama, along with an incredible determination to fulfill the promise he made to you when he woke from his coma.

"I also looked back through his childhood, and… well… I never really gave much thought to what it meant for so many villagers to bear a grudge against him, but it's a different perspective experiencing it from the eyes of a child who had no idea why everyone hated him.

"It's… complicated, I'm still not sure how I feel, but I'm making an effort to see him not as the Kyuubi, but… as a child whose life has been affected by things he has no control over," Inoichi finished lamely.

Sarutobi gave the younger man a weary smile.

"It does seem like nothing regarding Uzumaki Naruto is ever simple. But I'm glad that he's finally starting to change people's opinions of him. I only hope that, one person at a time, he can eventually be seen the way the Fourth wanted. Thank you for agreeing to do this Inoichi-kun."

Yamanaka Inoichi stood and gave the Hokage a respectful bow, before turning and walking out of the older man's office.

* * *

Naruto landed heavily on his back for the third time that day.

"Get up dobe, we're not done," Sasuke sneered.

Naruto grunted as he clumsily maneuvered back to his feet, left hand on his face the whole time. He didn't have the skill to take Sasuke out cleanly, and there wasn't enough time left on the clock to stage a comeback via points scored. But he'd be damned if he didn't give his all against the arrogant bastard to the bitter end.

The day had started off well for the blond-haired boy. It was academy graduation day, and he had set his alarm clock an hour early just to be sure he could get some last minute studying and warm-ups in. Then he had opened his breakfast instant ramen to find the free case of ramen winning label printed on the inside. Money was no longer a major issue in Naruto's life ever since he started shopping in his one-eyed Jounin disguise; he'd even been able to buy a pair of explosive tags from the weapon shop with his savings. But winning free ramen was always a cause for celebration.

The Genin exams went the way Naruto had expected them to. The extra studying he put in had caught him up with his classmates academically, and he managed to do reasonably well with the written portion of the exam. He was decent with Henge and less so with Bunshin, but was relieved when Iruka-sensei told him that he had just barely squeaked by passing level in the jutsu portion of the exam. His thrown weapons performance was poor, which he had expected, but he had put in enough practice that he managed to hit the target with one kunai above the number required for passing.

And then Naruto was matched against Uchiha Sasuke for the taijutsu portion of the exam.

While Naruto no longer made taijutsu a priority in his personal training, his intense physical conditioning regimen had still brought him back up to around the middle of the class in terms of taijutsu ability. The top fighters of the class like Sasuke and Inuzuka Kiba still beat him in every practice match, but lately he had begun to put forward a credible level of opposition against even them. Thus while Naruto was not confident of his chances for winning when he stepped into the practice circle against Sasuke, he still felt he could do well enough to pass the Genin exam overall.

The match began the same way as the last dozen or so matches they'd had during classes. Naruto had noticed Sasuke's tendency of opening with a kick followed by a hand combination, and managed to block them all while scoring a glancing kick of his own. Then he'd misread a kick feint to the midsection and dropped his arms, only to take a spinning backfist against the left side of his face. Sasuke had then grabbed and pulled the headband covering his eye right off of him. Naruto just had time to clamp his left hand over his eye just before a kick combination drove him to the ground for the first time.

"Why don't you come at me with both hands? Too ashamed of showing everyone your ugly scar?" Sasuke smirked, while making a taunting "come here" motion with his front hand.

Naruto no longer cared whether his classmates thought he was ugly or not, but Jiji had impressed on him the importance of not letting anyone see his left eye. The academy examiners wouldn't allow him time to retie his headband, so he had no choice but to finish the fight with one hand clamped securely over his eye.

As soon as the stop whistle sounded Naruto grabbed his headband and stalked away angrily, ignoring the twittering laughter of the Sasuke fangirl club. He had heard the examiners openly laughing at him as Sasuke put him down again and again; he didn't need them to tell him that he had failed.

Two hours later, Naruto watched the gathering of happy parents and newly graduated Genins from a bench partially hidden behind bushes at the back of the academy lot. He had worked out his disappointment and anger on a training post while the rest of his class finished with the testing, and now was slumped down in his seat in a sense of empty tiredness. For a moment, he allowed his mind to wander, to picture himself as one of those happy children being congratulated by proud parents…

'_Congratulations Naruto, I always knew you could do it!_'

'_Thanks dad, the tips you gave me about that jutsu were really useful!_'

'_Come on, I'll make you your favorite dishes for dinner!_'

'_Yay! Mom, can I invite my best friend too…_'

Naruto quashed his daydream viciously. They never led his mind to anywhere good.

"Naruto?" a kindly voice asked.

He turned to find himself looking at Mizuki. The academy instructor had seated himself beside Naruto while the boy was lost in his daydream.

"Are you feeling ok? I heard you failed the taijutsu portion of the exam."

"Yeah," the boy replied simply.

"It's too bad. I know you worked really hard for this, I was sure you could pass this time around."

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe next year."

He hoped the tone of his voice didn't betray the bitter disappointment he felt.

"Still, we both know you're ready. It would be a shame for you to spend another year at the academy when it was bad luck that made you fail the taijutsu exam."

Naruto turned to look at Mizuki, and the academy instructor gave him a warm smile in return.

"You know, there's another way you can pass the Genin test. It's supposed to be a secret, but…"

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I started this project specifically because I couldn't find any interesting non-super Naruto fics I'd not read before. He will, in time, grow to be quite powerful, but none of it will come easily. He'll have to sweat and bleed for most of his strength, and the things that are given to him without that effort will always come at a price. The eye is a good example. It's a bit of a power boost, but doesn't match the abilities of a proper bloodline doujutsu. Given that unveiling the eye in Konoha would bring down the entire citizenry's fear and wrath on him, at this point it's at least as much of a hindrance as a benefit.

I kept the Naruto gets beat up scene somewhat ambiguous on purpose. It's possible, even probable, that someone decided to beat the crap out of him because of who he is. It's also possible that he was just a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time, and any other defenseless kid would have gotten the same from a group of drunks.

I recognize that swords are probably the most overused weapon cliché in Naruto fandom. Of the classical feudal Japanese weapons, only swords and kusari-gama fit the portability, range, and area clearing requirements given his handicap. Having a kid with one eye training with a chain weapon is probably not the best idea, so swords it was.

6/11/10: Removed glossary, shortened author's notes.

3/29/10: Edited plot so that Naruto's attackers get captured, clarified amount of head damage Naruto suffered, made minor edits to remove a lot of unnecessary commas

3/13/10: Added disclaimer & Author's Notes

3/12/10: First Upload


	2. I Still Know Nothing About You, About

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Two: I Still Know Nothing About You, About Myself, About Everything

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

A hesitant voice interrupted the drudgery of his daily paperwork.

"Jiji?"

The Third Hokage looked up and studied the young boy's face before him. He had expected happiness if Naruto passed the Genin test. He had expected sadness or anger if Naruto failed. But he didn't expect the confused and guarded look the boy was presenting him now.

"Naruto? Did something happen with the Genin exam?"

"I… failed," Naruto replied after a moment's hesitation. "Taijutsu. Sasuke pulled my headband off and I spent the fight covering my eye."

Sarutobi nodded at Naruto sympathetically. In many ways, after his daughter had died in childbirth with her unborn child, the blond had grown to become the grandchild the Hokage never had. Over the years, spending so much time with the boy, Sarutobi had learned to read the nuances of his expressions quite well.

"I see, but that's not why you're here."

"Well, it's just that Mizuki-sensei said something that seemed suspicious, but I don't want to get him in trouble," Naruto replied.

"Hmm… perhaps you should tell me what he said? It might be something innocent after all."

"He said that there was another way I could pass the Genin exam. He said if I could get a scroll of forbidden jutsu from your residence and bring it to him at the twenty-fifth training ground tonight, that it would prove that I had the skill to be a Genin and could pass the test."

The Hokage's eyes narrowed. He knew exactly which scroll the boy was referring to. Either Mizuki was playing a very cruel joke on Naruto, or…

Sarutobi was quite old by any standard, and was physically nowhere near his prime. But his mind was sharp as it had ever been. His hand absently activated the privacy seals of his office as his mind threw a plan together in the space of a few seconds. The most important thing was protecting the scroll, because it contained some of the most powerful and dangerous jutsu to have been used by any Konoha shinobi. But it was just as important to ascertain Mizuki's true intentions. And if possible, Sarutobi wanted to help Naruto on his path of becoming a ninja.

"Naruto, I don't know what Mizuki's after, but there's no such alternative method for passing the Genin test."

Seeing Naruto's expression drop slightly, Sarutobi continued, "This is something that may be more important than the Genin test though, and I need your help with it. Would you be willing to?"

"Of course!" the boy replied without hesitation. As much as not passing the Genin exam hurt, he knew that the Hokage would not use such words lightly.

"Mizuki may simply be trying to play a trick on you, or it may be something worse. Either way, I want you to do what he says and steal the scroll from my residence tonight. I'll arrange guard shifts to give you an easier time and have some ANBU trailing you so that you'll have backup against Mizuki in case it's not a trick. Do you understand what I'm asking of you?"

Naruto considered the Hokage's words for several seconds before nodding, and then said quietly, "I won't let you down Jiji."

Sarutobi smiled fondly at the boy before him, reaching across the desk to ruffle his hair, "I know. Now go do whatever it is you do when you plan your pranks. But don't start anything until the sun sets."

He watched as Naruto walked out of his office and pulled the doors closed. As soon as the door latch clicked into place, the smile dropped from his face. He turned to the ANBU bodyguard hidden behind a false panel of his office.

"Get me Ibiki and Anko."

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen listened absently as the group before him bickered back and forth. He was supposed to mediate the debate and be the final arbiter of all decisions, but his mind was on other matters at the moment.

The night's meeting had gotten off to a rough start. In a minor act of divinity, the habitually late Hatake Kakashi managed to show up only half an hour after the scheduled time. Unfortunately, some of the academy staff and Jounin instructors had counted so much on Kakashi's chronic tardiness that they were out drinking in celebration of another academy year until half an hour after that.

Once all parties were settled in, discussions had begun on how to allocate the twenty-nine academy graduates into three-person teams. It was an extraordinary number, amongst the highest the academy had ever graduated since its founding. The first step was dividing the graduates into two groups: those with some clan-based or other advantages that stood out, and otherwise average children from civilian families. Seven clan offspring were sorted into the first group, plus one Haruno Sakura who, though from a civilian background, displayed remarkable intelligence by graduating at the top of the class academically.

The twenty-one from the second group were then sorted into teams. First they were divided into close combat, ranged support, and ninjutsu support types based on academic evaluation. Then teams were constructed by assigning one of each type per team while taking graduating rank into account. Thus the best close combat specialist of the group would be teamed with two relatively poor-performing members of the other specialties, while the worst ninjutsu specialist could count on having strong close combat and ranged support teammates. In this way the seven teams constructed from children with civilian backgrounds were made as equal as possible, while allowing for strong versatility within each team.

An unspoken but widely acknowledged fact was that few children from this group would ever get beyond Chunin level, even with a great deal of effort on their part. Many of the current group of graduates would not even be able to pass their Jounin instructor's final Genin tests and would find themselves back in the academy. Therefore it was felt that dividing children of civilian background in this way would give them the greatest chance of survival en route to a likely Chunin-level desk job.

It was during this process that a guard had rushed in to inform the Hokage of the break-in at his residence, and that Naruto had been spotted leaving with a scroll. Sarutobi had left the academy staff and Jounin instructors to finish the process of dividing the civilian graduates while he saw to the search for Naruto. He made sure to assign his best trackers far away from where Naruto would be, and assigned Mizuki with a pair of inexperienced Genin to search that particular area. Seeing Mizuki's admirable though not entirely successful job of masking his face of emotions, Sarutobi was assured that Mizuki would be able to find some way of ditching his teammates and meeting Naruto alone. Good.

The Hokage returned to the conference room in time to find the group starting in on the other eight graduates. Unlike civilian graduates, clan children with the potential for special abilities were a rare resource that needed to be cultivated in order for their full potential to develop properly. Team balance was taken into account, but so was compatibility of individual clan abilities, potential personality conflicts, as well as established bonds of friendship that could work to strengthen the team's cohesion.

The Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi children were immediately grouped together. The team composed of their fathers had been amongst Konoha's most effective in their time, proving the synergistic strength of their clan abilities when working together. No one ever doubted, provided they all graduated together, that the current generation would be teamed as well. In fact, they were all born within a month of each other, and Sarutobi wondered if their parents had conspired to that end as well.

Sarutobi wasn't surprised when his son Asuma volunteered to take on the team as their Jounin instructor. He got along well with the elder Nara, and by all accounts the son was a virtual copy of the father in terms of personality. There was also the fact that Asuma hadn't been allowed to smoke since the beginning of the meeting, and was looking for any excuse to finish his involvement and step out early.

Five graduates were left to divide between Hatake Kakashi and Yuuhi Kurenai's teams, meaning one would have a team of two Genin. Kakashi had volunteered to lead Uchiha Sasuke's team, a logical match given that he was the only one in the village with experience in using the Uchiha bloodline's Sharingan. Then things had gotten complicated.

"I'm telling you, Uchiha Sasuke needs to be in the larger team. Of all the graduates he displays the least inclination towards teamwork!" Umino Iruka insisted.

"He's the rookie of the year," another academy instructor countered, "putting him in the three-person team will leave the other one much weaker."

"What if we put the two weakest with Sasuke then, that Haruno girl and someone else?" Kakashi offered.

Sarutobi glanced down at the academy results spread out before him. Haruno Sakura's formidable intellect and chakra control were both at the top of the class, but she had not done well in the practical aspects of academy instruction. The girl was near the bottom of the class taijutsu, below average in thrown weapons, and tended to perform poorly in field exercises. For some reason, one of her instructors had also scribbled in the margin of her records that her reason for being a ninja is to "impress Sasuke-kun", and that despite her stated reason she tended to perform poorly when grouped with him.

He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The girl had great potential, but only with the proper nurturing and guidance from a very good instructor, and only if she found some proper motivation for her chosen career. And though Kakashi had a well-deserved reputation as one of the most elite of Konoha shinobi, proper nurturing and guidance of someone like this girl was not one of his skills. Not even close.

No, he decided, it would not be a good idea to put the girl in the same group as the Uchiha. It would effectively stunt her growth as a ninja.

Keeping to the theme of one female graduate to each team, Sarutobi asked, "What about Hyuuga Hinata instead? I'm surprised that her academy records show her as having average taijutsu."

"She's actually quite a bit more skilled than her academy records show," Iruka replied, "but she has some confidence issues that have held her back when her performance is being evaluated. There's another thing though… "

The Hokage nodded, indicating that Iruka should continue.

"She's formed a close friendship with Inuzuka Kiba over the last year, and his encouragement has given her more confidence in her own abilities lately. It's my strong recommendation that the two of them be assigned to the same team."

Sarutobi pondered the dilemma before him. The Hyuuga bloodline was one of the most potent Konoha possessed, and if all it took to improve this girl's performance significantly was pairing her with her friend, then that was the sensible thing to do. On the other hand that would make the whole issue of team balance more complicated.

Teaming Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba with the last Uchiha would be a good way to work on the boy's teamwork, as members of the Inuzuka clan were quite well known for their pack-oriented nature and ability to cooperate in groups. But that would leave the other team with Aburame Shino and the Haruno girl. Shino would undoubtedly be a great scout and competent support fighter with his family abilities, but according to his academy record his taijutsu was just above average. Haruno, for all her theoretical potential, was at present not much better than a civilian. That would make for a very under-strength team.

Swapping the two pairs around would make for more balanced teams. Sarutobi had already identified the problems with putting the Haruno girl in the same team as the Uchiha, and Aburame Shino was, according to his academy instructors' notes, as reserved and standoffish as the rest of his clan if not more so. In a team together, he could not see how three individuals with such personality mismatches could develop teamwork in any meaningful manner.

Sarutobi came to a decision. With only one Uchiha left in Konoha, it was necessary to nurture him carefully so the clan could be re-established. He would put the boy together with the Hyuuga and Inuzuka. The other team would be put on probationary status until a close combat specialist was found to round them out, either from the next year's academy graduates or from an already-established Genin team disbanding. He only hoped that Kurenai wouldn't be too disappointed.

"Hokage-sama, it looks like you have one more Genin graduate!"

Sarutobi looked up to see the conference room's doors burst open, allowing a broadly-grinning Mitarashi Anko into the room flanked by an apologetic-looking Chunin who had been guarding the doors outside. One of the academy instructors scowled at her borderline-indecent appearance, clad as she was in her typical attire of tan trench coat, fishnet, and not much else. Anko always insisted that it was body-hugging chainmail, though the Hokage couldn't see how it would protect her from anything.

"It's alright, I expected her," Sarutobi said as he waved a hand to dismiss the Chunin guard. "Now please tell us what happened, Anko."

"Mizuki from the academy had turned traitor, Hokage-sama," Anko replied. "He's with Ibiki now. I managed to track Uzumaki Naruto down at training ground twenty-five, and then watched from concealment as Mizuki turned up and revealed that he had tricked the kid into thinking that stealing the scroll of forbidden jutsu would allow him to pass the Genin exams."

Sarutobi nodded. It was the story he had pre-arranged with Ibiki and Anko when he sent them out on this secret assignment. He didn't know if Mizuki was working with anyone else, and it was best not to lay all his cards on the table yet.

"Why did you say that we have one more Genin graduate though?"

"Naruto failed today's test because of the taijutsu portion right? Ten minutes ago he just took Mizuki down one on one; I didn't even have to intervene. I'd say that more than qualifies him for Genin status."

"Impossible!" one of the academy instructors barked, "Uzumaki's taijutsu is below-average. There's no way he could have beaten the academy's taijutsu instructor."

Anko simply grinned even more broadly and cocked her head to one side in reply. The kid had done it by himself alright. It didn't matter what tricks or weapons he used, results were what counted for active-duty shinobi.

Sarutobi smiled. A number of his problems had been solved for him in one stroke.

"Very well then, it looks like we can now field two full teams. Kakashi, I'd like you to take Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba for your team. The Inuzuka pack mentality will be a good lesson in teamwork for the Uchiha, and make sure that the Hyuuga girl continues to build her confidence."

Seeing the masked Jounin nod, he turned to Yuuhi Kurenai.

"Kurenai, your team will be Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto. Does anyone have any problems with the team assignments?"

Seeing no objections, the Hokage moved to end the meeting. "The meeting is over then, thank you all for your hard work. Iruka, please file the necessary paperwork and see to it that Uzumaki Naruto gets a hitai-ate in time for tomorrow. Anko, Kurenai, come with me please."

Striding purposefully out of the conference room and upstairs to the Hokage office, Sarutobi waited until the two female Jounin had followed him in and seated themselves, then dismissed his guard and activated his office's privacy seals before seating himself. Clasping his fingers together and putting them against his chin contemplatively, he mentally sorted through the things that needed to be covered in the coming conversation. He had chosen Kurenai to be Naruto's Jounin instructor because, as one of the very rare shinobi who had risen from a civilian background to elite Jounin status, she had not lost any family members to the Kyuubi's attack. Her Chunin team had also been on extended assignment outside Konoha when the attack occurred. The woman had never displayed any negative feelings towards Naruto, but he needed to be sure.

"First, Kurenai-san, I'd like you to tell me what you know about Uzumaki Naruto."

"I don't really know that much about him, beyond what's commonly known."

"Please indulge me."

"Well, I know he's an orphan, and no one knows who his parents are. He used to be a holy terror around town with the pranks he pulled. Though I have to say, some of the more elaborate ones were quite interesting, from a planning and execution viewpoint. Someone attacked him two or three years ago, I heard he lost an eye and spent some time in the hospital. After that I don't recall seeing him around the village much at all. I'm actually somewhat surprised he managed to beat Mizuki at all, let alone one-eyed."

"Hmm. How did he manage to do that Anko?"

"It was quite a fight Hokage-sama," the trench coated ninja exhibitionist replied, "the kid set up a double explosive tag trap where the first explosion would also drop the second tag down on a wire, and modified that one to have a longer delay. He got Mizuki to chase him to where he'd set the trap up, and the first one exploded when the bastard was by the tree it was stuck on. Mizuki managed to pull back and avoid any real damage though."

Sarutobi nodded. Explosive tags were costly to produce, and were no more than nuisances to shinobi of mid-Chunin rank or higher. They were typically sold to starry-eyed Genin for their visual impact, who did not yet realize just how difficult it was to cause any major injuries to seasoned ninja with tags.

"That was just the first part of the Naruto's trap though. He set up a Bunshin to charge through the explosive smoke, while he circled around and attacked Mizuki from the back. Mizuki saw through the Bunshin and turned, just in time to see the tag that had dropped on a wire behind him explode in his face.

"He managed to mostly shield himself from the second explosion and punched the second Naruto, but that one was a Bunshin too. The two explosions rattled Mizuki enough that he didn't notice. That was when the real Naruto jumped out of the bushes with a wooden sword and swung down on the traitor's punching arm. Naruto's swordplay is rough, but he's got good instinctive sense, and with Mizuki having a broken arm it was just a matter of time before the kid took him down."

Sarutobi couldn't help but chuckle at Naruto's multi-layered trap. It seemed that Naruto was able to apply his prank-planning abilities to the type of situations he would face as a ninja.

"Hokage-sama, if I may ask, has Naruto been training with a sword for long? Is that why his academy taijutsu evaluations are poor?" Kurenai ventured.

"Almost two years now, I think," Sarutobi replied, "he explained it to me by saying that a sword's increased reach could keep opponents from taking advantage of his blind side. And that if they ever got close enough, a sword slash can attack a large area around him without needing sight on target. When he told me I gave him some scrolls to learn from, basics and sword theory mostly."

Kurenai nodded thoughtfully. "That an academy student could find a solution to his personal weaknesses on his own, and then independently train that skill without showing it for two years…"

"You'll find that Naruto is quite determined to improve himself. In fact, his extended hospitalizations kept him away from the academy for nearly eight months, meaning that he effectively made up a year's worth of academy instruction on his own."

Kurenai's eyebrows arched at this, she hadn't known that Naruto had been hospitalized for quite that long.

"In that case, still managing to graduate with his age peers despite having been out of the academy so long…" Kurenai shuffled through some of Naruto's academy reports in her hands, glancing through them, "he has a lot more potential than his academy instructors have realized."

"Indeed, and I'm counting on you to help him realize that potential."

"I'll do my best, Hokage-sama."

"Good." Sarutobi smiled at the red-eyed woman. "Now, what I'm about to tell you is known by exactly six people, and you'll be the seventh. Naruto, myself, Ibiki and Anko, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Chief of Medicine Sanzenin Yasushi. This is a secret you must keep at all costs, unless Naruto chooses to disclose it himself. Do you understand?"

Kurenai glanced at Anko before nodding, trying to think of what the secret might be. It obviously applied to Naruto, and given the involvement of both the Yamanaka clan patriarch and the hospital Chief of Medicine it was likely something to do with Naruto's mental health. Did he have a split personality or something?

The Hokage reached down and unlocked one of the secret compartments of his desk, pulling out a folder and passing it to Kurenai.

"This file will give you more detail on what I'm about to tell you. I'd like you to take it with you and read it tonight. You can return it tomorrow morning, make sure no one else sees it."

Sarutobi watched as the young Jounin pulled the folder close to her, where it seemingly disappeared into the complex patterns of black and white body-hugging ribbons that Kurenai's normal uniform appeared to be made out of.

"About a year after Naruto lost his left eye, he… spontaneously developed a replacement, except this eye has a red iris around a dark red pupil. The second period of extended hospitalization in his official records was actually spent in an ANBU holding cell. He spent two months there until it was determined that this didn't pose a threat to Konoha. Ever since then I've told him to keep the eye hidden at all times, except in very specific life-or-death situations where it might prove to be an advantage. Given his background, you'll understand why I went to such lengths."

The Hokage didn't need to elaborate. Kurenai was very much aware of how many villagers saw Naruto as being the Kyuubi reincarnated. If they suddenly saw him with an abnormal red eye, the results wouldn't be pretty. It was ironic that she herself went about Konoha with no problems at all with two eyes like that, although hers were just a quirk of family genetics.

"After extensive examinations, it was determined that the eye gives him slightly better vision than normal, and also gives him an easier time seeing through minor genjutsu. Yamanaka-san is of the opinion that this is an ability that might be improved on with some effort; that was one of the reasons I chose to put him on your team. Once he's comfortable with you as a Jounin instructor, you could suggest to him ways of exploring the eye's potential and seeing if there's any way to train it."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. If I may ask though, can you tell me where the eye came from? Is it a byproduct of being the Kyuubi's vessel or is it something else?"

"We weren't able to determine that, though Sanzenin-sensei and Yamanaka-san were satisfied that neither the eye nor Naruto's mind bear any traces of Kyuubi interference. Sanzenin-sensei speculated that it may be a manifestation of some unknown Bloodline Limit, as we don't know anything about Naruto's parentage," Sarutobi replied. It wasn't entirely factual, but it was truth that no one knew much about the background of the boy's mother.

"This isn't the first time I've said it, and I'm sure this won't be the last," Sarutobi continued, "but it seems as if nothing with Uzumaki Naruto is ever easy. For now just keep it in mind when you deal with the boy, and report to me directly if there are any new developments. Now, if you have no other questions, the both of you are dismissed."

Kurenai left the Hokage's office distractedly, thinking about the Genin that made up her new team while her body moved itself out of the building automatically. The Hokage didn't say anything outright, but someone with Naruto's childhood and circumstances would more likely than not have some emotional issues that would need to be addressed. Aburame Shino on the other hand was probably the easiest to deal with of the three. He was competent though unexceptional in all basic areas of shinobi skill, though if he was anything like the rest of his reserved clan it would be a challenge to get him interacting normally with the rest of his team. Haruno Sakura had her share of problems as well, if her academy evaluations were any indication. Kurenai was quite familiar with fangirl behavior from her own academy and Genin days, and in her experience those who didn't let go of their fangirl mindset quickly after graduation tended to find their kunoichi careers cut short quite abruptly. The lucky ones were those who simply couldn't handle the reality of shinobi life and dropped out altogether.

There was also the matter of molding the three of them into an effective team.

Kurenai was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't notice Anko following her, until the younger tokubetsu Jounin jerked her out of her ruminations by energetically throwing an arm around her shoulder.

"Yes Anko," Kurenai sighed, "I have sake at home."

"Excellent!" Anko proclaimed. "You can ask me anything you want about the kid while I get sloshed! The Hokage had me pulled from regular duties to be the kid's jailer for two months."

As Anko followed her home singing some sexual innuendo-filled drinking song, Kurenai couldn't help but reflect back on the strange set of circumstances that had ended up with them becoming friends. Anko was loud, brash, and often rude. But for all her faults, she was utterly dependable when it mattered. The demanding life of an active-duty shinobi did not always allow one to choose their own friends, but Kurenai knew that she could have done far worse than someone like Mitarashi Anko.

* * *

Naruto sat in a corner of the academy classroom, reading a scroll he'd brought with him while trying to ignore the curious glances of his soon-to-be ex-classmates.

His thrashing at the hands of the Uchiha bastard and subsequent failure of the taijutsu exam had been witnessed by many of his classmates, so more than a few of them were wondering why he was sitting in the classroom that was supposed to be for graduating Genin only. No one had actually come up to ask him though.

"Oy Naruto, why are you here? Today's meeting is for graduates only."

Until now.

Naruto didn't reply to Shikamaru, opting to continue with his reading while he simply pointed at the hitai-ate that was laid out on the desk in front of him. He knew that the pineapple-headed boy would find it too troublesome to press him for a verbal explanation if he didn't offer one first.

Shikamaru slouched off to find a free seat, but as he left Naruto caught the word the other boy had mumbled.

"Troublesome."

Several minutes later Naruto was startled from his reading when the classroom door was thrown open with a resounding bang. A glance up at the door showed Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino simultaneously trying to struggle through the door past each other, followed by both of them squeezing through at the same time. Then the bickering began about who had made it in first, and thus who got to sit next to Sasuke.

Naruto rubbed at his temple, trying to tune the two out. In the final exchange last night, Mizuki had managed to land a spinning kick against the side of his head that left his vision swimming and ears ringing before his instinctive counterstroke had put the traitor down for good. Now the screeching was threatening to bring his headache from last night back in full force. Naruto couldn't help but grimace and close his eye tightly as some of the other girls who'd arrived earlier joined in to insist that they should be the ones to sit next to Sasuke.

His hearing, and possibly his sanity, was saved when the classroom door opened again. This time it was academy instructor Umino Iruka, team assignment rosters in hand.

* * *

Aburame Shino sat on the roof of the academy, legs dangling over the edge, bento open but practically untouched on his lap.

Only his closest relatives would be able to tell from the slight changes in his carefully guarded demeanor, but Shino was annoyed.

When he enrolled in the academy Shino had decided, after consulting with his father, to place less emphasis on taijutsu training in favor of working with the Kikaichu insects that were the foundation of his clan's unique abilities. It was a rational decision at the time. Increased expertise with his clan's abilities would allow his eventual Genin team a number of tactical options that no one else in his year group could provide, while his taijutsu shortcomings could be overcome by being teamed with someone who was a close combat specialist. Until the day he graduated from the academy, Shino had seen no reason to regret his decision. Like most of the Aburame clan he was taller and heavier than his peers, and his ability to take advantage of those attributes made him an above average fighter compared to the rest of the class. Given the relatively small amount of time he devoted to taijutsu practice, Shino felt that was a satisfactory outcome.

He was questioning the wisdom of that decision now.

He had been teamed with Haruno Sakura, who, along with Hyuuga Hinata, he had carefully monitored for the last two years of their academy classes. His father had once led a Genin team, and from some of the clues the elder Aburame had dropped it was not difficult for Shino to figure out the general principles behind Genin team placement. Given the male to female ratio of his academy class and the potential of a reborn Ino-Shika-Cho team, it was obvious that he would be placed with either Sakura or Hinata.

Shino greatly respected the girl's intellectual capability; her nearly perfect record in academy written tests was evidence enough of that. But she was also nearly if not outright the worst of their peers in taijutsu. From the way her skills had developed so slowly since he'd started watching her, he suspected that she put no effort into physical training outside of class time.

The third member of their team was the boy who some of their classmates had taken to calling the "dead last", Uzumaki Naruto. That label wasn't entirely without justification; Naruto had barely passed most of the graduation examinations, and had failed the taijutsu portion outright. Still, Shino knew that academy records did not paint a complete picture when it came to Naruto. Between his two extended hospitalizations the blond had essentially missed out on a year of schooling, and yet had managed to graduate on time with the rest of his age peers. This was a sign of remarkable talent or initiative and should have been encouraged, yet many of the academy instructors seemed to take delight in ignoring Naruto whenever they could.

Shino well remembered how frail and sickly the blond looked on his first day back to classes a year and a half ago. His poor physical condition, combined with their classmates learning to take advantage of his blind side, had quickly dropped Naruto to the bottom of the class in taijutsu. Then, over the course of the next year and a half, Naruto had managed to claw his way back to the middle of the pack. Shino had to admit that Naruto's climb back up the rankings impressed him; it spoke of great determination on the blond boy's part. Yet for all that effort, Shino was still able to beat him in practice more often than not.

Then there was the matter of Naruto's taijutsu exam. Shino, engaged in his own match at the time, was one of the few who did not see Naruto's fight with Sasuke. What he had managed to gather later was that Sasuke had accidentally pulled the blond boy's headband off during the match, and Naruto lost because he kept one hand over his face the rest of the fight to cover up his facial scarring. Shino did not know Naruto well, but he had difficulty imagining that the boy who had worked so hard over the last two years would have been willing to risk failing the graduation test over vanity.

He had failed the taijutsu exam though, and thus didn't meet the requirements for Genin graduation. But today he was a Genin anyway. There was no official explanation, but what Shino managed to overhear in the Aburame clan compound indicated that Naruto was allowed to graduate because he had defeated Mizuki without help. Naruto, who had difficulty fighting academy classmate Shino, had managed to defeat a Chunin close combat specialist who taught taijutsu in the academy. It simply didn't make sense.

Sighing and repacking his bento, Shino mentally set that problem aside in the growing pile he had taken to labeling "The Mystery of Uzumaki Naruto". Lunch was almost over, and he had to return back to the classroom for the first meeting with the team's Jounin instructor.

* * *

Haruno Sakura ambled casually through the streets of Konoha, annoyance clearly visible on her face.

After announcing the team assignments Iruka had dismissed the class for lunch, with a reminder to return an hour later to meet their Jounin instructors. As she was on a diet Sakura chose to skip lunch, instead passing the time wandering around the village.

Sakura couldn't understand why she had been put on a team with the dead last and the creepy bug boy. She knew her taijutsu wasn't very good, but she was academically at the top of her class wasn't she? It makes more sense to have her on Sasuke-kun's team so their strengths could complement each other. Why hadn't the academy instructors seen such an obvious fact?

Then there were her teammates. She sympathized with Naruto having lost an eye, but shouldn't he have learned to give up and find a civilian job where his handicap wouldn't hurt him so much? He had managed to produce a pair of sickly-looking Bunshin during the jutsu portion of the exam, and had passed by a hair. Then Sasuke-kun completely outclassed him during the taijutsu exam. Even she had beaten Naruto from time to time during practice. What use would the blond boy be as part of the team?

Sakura had to admit that, from academy readings that gave a brief overview of the abilities of Konoha's various major clans, that Shino could be useful in a team. But there was something just so… wrong about having bugs in your body! She would just have to tell Shino to never use his bugs anywhere near her, or she'd beat him up.

Turning around to retrace her steps, Sakura sighed as she made her way back to the academy. She really wasn't looking forward to working with her team. Even Ino-pig had managed to get a better team with Shikamaru and Chouji. Lazy and fat she could deal with, but useless and creepy was just a bit too much for her.

* * *

Naruto didn't bother with lunch. With all that had happened yesterday he had forgotten about restocking groceries. Then in the morning, faced with his last cup of instant ramen, he had opted to eat it then rather than saving it for lunch.

Instead Naruto made his way to the nearest training ground as quickly as he could. During Iruka's lecture about what it means to be a shinobi of the Leaf, Naruto had mentally reviewed the final exchange between Mizuki and himself. He had come to the conclusion that he had stepped too far forward and overextended himself when trying a diagonal downward slash on Mizuki, and that was what provided the opening for the traitor to kick him. He wanted to physically test out his ideas before meeting with his Jounin instructor.

Naruto didn't give much thought to his teammates. Jiji had pulled some strings to let him graduate, and for that he was grateful. He'd work with whoever they teamed him with, and train as much as he could so that he could be a competent ninja. He had to repay the debt he owed the old man after all.

* * *

"Team Ten: Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino, this is your Jounin instructor Sarutobi Asuma. Follow him out."

The new Ino-Shika-Cho team dutifully followed Asuma out of the classroom, though not without Ino giving Sasuke's back one last longing look.

There were seven left in the classroom now; the members of Teams Seven and Eight, plus Iruka. Naruto had once again buried himself in his reading, only peripherally paying attention to his surroundings. After returning from lunch Shino had chosen to take the seat beside him, and was now sitting as impassively as a statue. Sakura had taken the opportunity of other teams leaving to move to the now-empty seat beside Sasuke, and was trying to engage the black-haired boy in conversation. From what Naruto could tell, she would have had just as much success talking to a Sasuke wall poster.

Naruto's eye was drawn to the door by the sound of it opening, and he was startled by what he saw. A kunoichi, presumably a Jounin instructor, walked through the door. She had black feathery hair that drifted down to her collarbones, and her uniform appeared to be a red sleeve attached to some odd assortment of black and white bandages that weaved around her body in some kind of pattern. What caught Naruto's attention however were the crimson irises of her eyes.

"Team Eight: Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto, this is your Jounin instructor Yuuhi Kurenai, follow her out."

Iruka's words brought Naruto back to his immediate surroundings, and he realized the Jounin instructor had seen him staring at her and was watching him in turn. He turned his eye downward and followed her out the door, brushing past Sakura when she turned to stare longingly at Sasuke before exiting the room.

Kurenai waved for the three to follow her, and then led them out of the academy and to the adjacent playground. Once there, she motioned for her students to sit down on some nearby logs before taking a seat facing them. Naruto had chosen to simply plop himself down on the log closest to where he was, while Shino sat on an adjacent log. Sakura had taken a detour to find a seat that would put Naruto between herself and Shino, and also sat at the far edge of her log away from her new teammates. It also did not escape Kurenai's notice that Naruto was watching her with a carefully, almost deliberately, neutral expression. Since she knew Naruto's secret it wasn't difficult to guess what he was thinking, so she decided to put the boy at ease.

"My red eyes are just a genetic quirk of the family, there's nothing special about them," Kurenai said with a smile towards him. The tension visible in his shoulders eased, and his face relaxed slightly into a more natural expression.

"Now," Kurenai began, "let's get to know each other so we can start off on the right foot as a team. Who you are, likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals for the future, that kind of thing. I'll start. My name is Yuuhi Kurenai, and I'm a genjutsu specialist. I like drinking with my friends and coming up with interesting ways to use genjutsu. I dislike braggarts and people who think genjutsu isn't as useful as ninjutsu. My hobby is cooking, especially trying new recipes. My goal for the future is to make sure you all advance yourselves as shinobi safely and successfully."

Kurenai turned her eyes to Shino, prompting him to take up the introductions.

"My name is Aburame Shino. I like studying insects and winter melon soup. I dislike loud people and strong-smelling foods. My hobby is collecting insects to add to my collection, and my goal for the future is to contribute new jutsu to my clan's library."

Kurenai nodded, that was more or less what she expected from Shino. She turned to Sakura next.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like Sasuke-kun and taking care of my hair. I dislike Ino-pig and annoying people. I like to spend time singing karaoke and watching movies, and my goal for the future is to become a great kunoichi so Sasuke-kun will recognize my worth!"

Kurenai nodded at Sakura's introduction, carefully masking her thoughts from her face. As she expected, Sakura would need a great deal of work. The girl's life revolved too much around her crush for her to be an effective shinobi. Setting those thoughts aside for the moment, Kurenai turned to the last member of her team.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like Hokage-Jiji and training. I dislike people who look down on me. My hobby's music, and my goal for the future... I don't really know, I promised Jiji that I would work hard to graduate, but now… I guess my goal for the future is to become a Chunin."

Kurenai looked at the boy, trying to reconcile what she was seeing and hearing now with the vague image of the boy she remembered from before he lost his eye. Back then his most immediate feature was the horribly ugly orange jumpsuit, which he had now replaced with a plain white T-shirt and gray cargo pants. Her eyes also picked out, partially hidden beneath the sleeves, chakra-enhanced arm and leg weights. They were of the type used by ninja for physical therapy and training, as chakra could be pumped into them to increase their weight far beyond what their physical size would suggest.

The other thing she remembered of the boy was how some of the ninja she knew had laughed at his ambition of becoming Hokage then, and now there was no mention of that goal.

Genjutsu relied strongly on an understanding of human psychology to be effective, and Kurenai was better than most at the art. She came to the realization that social isolation lay at the root of Naruto's problems. The visually loud orange jumpsuit, the elaborate pranks, and the lofty ambition; all of those things were classic attention seeking behavior from a child being denied it. When Naruto was almost killed, he had gotten the attention he sought and found out he didn't want it anymore. The Hokage had then gotten the child to promise to work hard to achieve Genin status, and that promise was what had sustained Naruto for the last two years. And now he found himself floundering for direction again.

Kurenai gave the boy a nod, acknowledging his self-introduction. It was customary, though not strictly necessary, for Jounin instructors to give their new teams a final test at this point. She already had one planned out, and giving it to them now would give her some time to plan out how she could address Sakura and Naruto's problems.

"Very good. Now that we've all introduced ourselves, it's time to move on to your final graduation test."

"Graduation test?" Sakura asked, "But we already graduated."

"You have graduated, yes, but you're not full Genin until you pass a test given by your Jounin instructor. Those who fail the test will be recycled back to the academy for another year. Right now, your classmates in other teams are being told the same thing."

"What kind of test is it?" This time it was Naruto with the question.

Kurenai took note of her students' expressions. Sakura's face was an open book of apprehension tinged with a hint of fear; she was likely afraid that the test would be of an entirely practical nature. Shino appeared impassive as ever, though she noted the slight tension in the boy's shoulders indicating unease. In between them, Naruto had slipped back into a carefully guarded expression.

The Jounin moved a hand to her uniform and seemingly pulled a thin folder out of nowhere. In truth, it was a minor genjutsu that she had developed to go along with her unusual uniform. Handing the folder to Naruto, seated in between his teammates, she watched as the three crowded closer to examine the folder's contents. When Naruto flipped the folder open, she saw the flash of recognition in his eye, which confirmed to Kurenai where he had gotten the idea of using his hitai-ate to cover his left eye.

"The person you're looking at is Hatake Kakashi, Jounin instructor for Team Seven," she explained, "on the next page you'll find a basic profile on him, plus an outline of his schedule for tomorrow morning."

This was accompanied by Naruto moving the photograph to one side, allowing the team to read the next page. She gave them a few moments to absorb the carefully edited profile of Kakashi she had specially written before continuing.

"Kakashi has agreed to help me with my test by sticking to that schedule, though he doesn't know the full details. Amongst other things, he has a reputation for being chronically late. He's holding the Genin test for his own team tomorrow. He's going to tell his team to show up to the third training ground at five in the morning, but he's not planning on showing up until almost noon."

"Would a Jounin really be that late?" asked Sakura skeptically.

Kurenai gave the pink-haired girl a smile.

"Normally, not so much. Kakashi does have a habit of being late. He has what some might consider a valid reason, though I'm not going to justify his actions to you nor am I going to tell you what his reason is. His lateness is usually on the order of an hour or so though. Being six hours late is actually part of his plan for testing his Genin team.

"Your test will take place in two parts. Your objective is to get Kakashi to make it to the third training ground before he intends to, without letting him or his Genin know of your true intentions. Of course, this means you can't tell your friends on Kakashi's team that he's planning to show up late. You'll do your planning with each other now, and I'll be evaluating you as you do that. I'll also evaluate how well you carry your plans out tomorrow, as well as how you adapt and improvise should your plans fail."

Kurenai left unstated the fact that she did not actually expect them to succeed. She was more interested in seeing how well they planned and worked together at this point.

"Kurenai-sensei, is it necessary for us to conduct our planning here?"

Two and a half pairs of eyes turned towards one pair hidden behind dark sunglasses. The two Genin candidates were surprised because Shino, to their knowledge, had never asked a question during his academy years. Kurenai on the other hand was pleased at the quiet boy's willingness to speak up amongst his teammates.

"No, you can choose to go anywhere you want. I'll be accompanying you though, and I expect you to have some kind of plan worked out within a reasonable amount of time."

"Then perhaps it would benefit us to plan this out in one of the library's study rooms. There will be fewer distractions and we will be able to make use of the library's detailed street maps."

"Good idea, Shino-kun!" Sakura exclaimed. Naruto, for his part, patted the taller boy on the shoulder before gathering the folder's contents and leading the way to the library. Kurenai was encouraged by their interaction; small gestures like these were important first steps in creating a cohesive team.

* * *

"What if we just attack him here," Sakura asked as she pointed to a spot on the large map laid out before them, "and drive him towards the training ground. It's not far from this spot."

"Two reasons," Naruto replied, "First, Kurenai-sensei said she would be evaluating us based on our planning as well as execution. I doubt that 'attack him and hope he does what we want' makes for a well thought out plan.

"Second, he's a Jounin, and if they kept him in active service after losing an eye probably a very good one. There's no way three fresh from the academy Genin could take him in a fight. If that were the case, the Sasuke fangirl legion would have overthrown the Hokage by revolution already and renamed this place the village hidden in Sasuke's overinflated ego."

From the back of the study room Kurenai suppressed the urge to smile, as Sakura fumed about the insult to Sasuke but didn't voice a disagreement. The raised collar hid Shino's mouth, but Kurenai was sure that she saw the preternaturally stoic boy's shoulders vibrate slightly.

The three had been going at it for about an hour, and each had settled into their respective roles. Naruto was the one to suggest most of the ideas, ranging from the bizarre (kidnapping Kakashi's team in the morning), to the morally dubious (peeping on the women's side of the hot springs in Kakashi Henge, then getting the angry women to chase the real Kakashi), to the somewhat workable (stealing Kakashi's little orange book). Shino was the one to critique Naruto's ideas; taking them apart in such detail that Kurenai wondered just how bad the boy would be to watch movies with. For her part Sakura acted as a bulwark against some of Naruto's more questionable ideas…

'_Naruto! How could you THINK of using orphans to threaten Kakashi?'_

'_I wasn't really going to hurt them, just make Kakashi think so. I would have bribed their cooperation with ramen. All orphans love ramen, don't they?'_

She made occasional suggestions on how to improve aspects of more reasonable plans Naruto came up with as well, and had also shown her organizational skills by arranging a thread on the map to indicate Kakashi's expected route, fixing the thread in place with a series of pins that she had attached time labels to.

"Ok, new idea," Naruto declared as he crossed out several lines on the pad before him. "I think this one will work, but I'm going to need to borrow money from one of you. It's getting near the end of the month and I don't have enough left in my monthly stipend…"

Kurenai watched as Naruto gradually refined his plan, scribbling notes routes on the map and modifying things here and there based on a criticism from Shino or a suggestion from Sakura. She had to admit that she was intrigued; the plan was as wildly outlandish as it was surprisingly feasible. The red-eyed Jounin decided then and there that she would pass this team based on what she had seen so far. But it wouldn't do to tell them just yet. No, she did not want to miss out on the fun of watching them put Kakashi through the wringer.

* * *

As the sun fully crested the eastern horizon, preparing to make its long journey across the sky, the early-rising citizens of Konoha were treated to an unusual sight. Hatake Kakashi, famed copy-ninja, elite Jounin, perpetually late pervert, found himself strolling aimlessly through the streets of the village. Hours before he had even intended to wake up today.

'At least,' he thought to himself as he turned the page of the little orange pornographic book in his hands, 'there's a new volume of Icha-Icha.'

Two nights ago Kurenai had asked for his help with testing her soon-to-be Genin team. His first inclination had been to decline, but then she reminded him how her genjutsu had saved him from the challenges of a very drunk and rambling Maito Gai the last time the Jounin had been out drinking as a group. He had reluctantly agreed, only to find a piece of paper with a list of times and locations shoved into his hand before Kurenai slipped away. She wouldn't tell him what exactly she was making her Genin team do, but Kakashi had a pretty good idea anyway.

Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, and he spun around to see… himself… disappear from view around a corner. Complete with the little orange book and perverted giggle.

Kakashi knew exactly what was going on. He had noticed the child secretly following him around, studying his posture and mannerisms. When the child had then started going around the village disguised under a Kakashi Henge, the copycat-ninja had covertly tailed him a few times to see what the boy intended to do with his likeness. Kakashi had come away from those observation sessions satisfied that the child wasn't doing anything improper, and at the same time had been impressed by the young blond's unorthodox solution to the problem of interacting with hostile villagers.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Kakashi mumbled to himself, "this may be more interesting than I originally thought."

Making for the side alley that his clone had taken earlier, Kakashi was just in time to catch a glimpse of the disguised Naruto slip around another corner. The Jounin could tell that he was being deliberately led somewhere, but with his curiosity piqued decided to follow along.

Three side alleys later, Kakashi realized that Naruto was leading him towards an outdoor food market which was popular as a breakfast spot amongst morning laborers. Kakashi frowned, though it was hidden underneath his mask. Did Naruto not know that the food market would be crowded this time of day? How did he expect two identical copies of Kakashi, one following the other, to not attract attention?

Shrugging, Kakashi turned the corner into the open air market. He was just in time to watch himself walk past a dango stand, grabbing a purple-haired trench coated woman's ass as he passed before ducking around yet another corner. The woman whirled around to look for her groper, before her eyes settled murderously on the one-eyed shinobi before her, who was walking around in broad daylight with pornography in his hands.

_Oh crap._

"Kakashi! I'm going to kill you, you pervert!" Anko roared as she jumped at him.

Kakashi spun on his heels and bolted as fast as he could in the other direction. As he ran it did not escape his attention that the side alley he had just come from, and the next two as well, had been suddenly blocked off by crates. So he was still being led along by Kurenai's Genin team.

The third side alley was clear, and connected at the other end to a busy main road where Kakashi could easily lose the enraged purple-haired tokubetsu Jounin. It was more than likely a trap, but Kakashi darted down it anyway. He was somewhat amused by how things had played out so far and was curious what the next step would be.

What he did not expect was to see two people running at him from the other side of the narrow alley, another copy of himself and another enraged-looking Anko. It was Naruto again, and probably the Haruno girl under a Henge. Kakashi skidded to a stop, preparing to escape to the rooftops, when a mass of writhing darkness fell over him. The Aburame boy's bugs, his mind helpfully supplied.

The unexpected bug attack startled him enough that Naruto was able to sprint the distance between them and crash into him, sending the young boy tumbling and dispelling his Kakashi Henge disguise. The real Kakashi decided that the three Genin had managed to come too close for his comfort. Grabbing the little orange book that he had dropped during the collision Kakashi proceeded to disappear in a puff of smoke, using a quick Shunshin to reappear several blocks away.

Kakashi idly brushed some dust off his vest while reviewing the last few minutes in his mind. The plan, as audacious and multilayered as it was, bore Naruto's unmistakable fingerprints. Some of the kid's more elaborate pranks were practically legend amongst the Chunin who were routinely assigned to track him down or pick up the pieces after a prank. Given that the teams had only been formed the day before, they had nevertheless managed to coordinate their teamwork at a pretty decent level too. Kakashi only hoped that his own team would show that level of teamwork when he tested them later. But as good as Kurenai's kids' planning had been up to that point the clash in the alley had been a mistake. It was foolish for the three of them to think that they could take a Jounin on in any kind of confrontation.

The masked Jounin turned away, prepared to waste another few hours wandering the streets with the new volume of Icha-Icha before heading to meet his own team. With an indecent giggle, he brought the book to his face, flipped to the next page, and began reading.

'"But we mustn't, Minoru-kun, someone might see," Akira protested weakly, gasping as the taller boy's hand slipped into his shorts.'

_What the __hell? _

Kakashi turned the page.

'Akira's too-large uniform slipped off his shoulders and puddled at his feet, his boyishly shy face looking to one side as he bared himself.'

Kakashi flipped the little book over and jerked the orange dust jacket off, his visible eye widening in surprise and annoyance at what he saw. A fraction of a second later he had disappeared in another puff of Shunshin smoke, with just one thought on his mind.

Those little bastards, they were going to pay!

* * *

Naruto ran as if his life depended on it. And, he thought between labored breaths, it just might.

Every heartbeat thundered painfully in his ears. Every breath was like liquid fire in his lungs. But he ran on. His teammates had done all they could, but there was no one left now. It was up to him to finish the mission.

He had left behind his customary training weights when he dressed in the morning, foregoing them to squeeze every last drop of speed he could from his small frame. Even now he felt a little unusual moving without them, as accustomed to them as he was after nearly two years of constant usage. The weight difference though had allowed him to make it to the edge of the village in record time.

The last of Konoha's buildings passed by in a blur, and now he was in a sea of indistinct green. He was close, just a little further to the goal. He was going to make it! He was…

Naruto suddenly found himself choking, feet flying forward into the air, as his forward motion was abruptly halted by an arm across his neck. The next moment he found himself flat on his back, staring unfocusedly at the sky, fighting the urge to throw up.

His assailant leaned down and grabbed double handfuls of his shirt, jerking him back to his feet. In his winded state it was all he could do to throw a weak flailing hook punch at where he thought his attacker's face was.

Naruto's attack was easily brushed aside, and then the attacker grabbed at the fabric of Naruto's shirt just below the elbow while his other arm hooked under the boy's armpit. Before Naruto's mind could process what had happened, he found himself being slung violently over his attacker's shoulder, flying to land awkwardly on his back again.

A feminine voice barked out, "Stop, both you! This mission is over!"

Naruto found himself being lifted to his feet again, this time more gently. He took a few staggering steps before collapsing against the trunk of a nearby tree, using his arms to hold his upper body vertical while he gulped in large breaths of air.

Kurenai landed in the small clearing next to Kakashi, watching her student struggle to return his breathing to normal. A minute later Shino made his way into the clearing, panting heavily from the exertion of trying to catch up with Naruto. He was followed shortly after by an embarrassed-looking Sakura, slung unceremoniously under Anko's arm like a sack of rice.

Kakashi lifted the brow of his visible eye. "So you were in on it too."

Anko grinned in reply while putting Sakura on her feet. "What can I say? The plan sounded interesting and he bribed me with a month of dango."

"First things first," Kakashi insisted, "my book."

Naruto reached into one of the larger pockets of his pants, pulling out a little orange book and holding it up. Kakashi took his precious book and thrust the "replacement" at Naruto, only for the boy to jerk his thumb at Sakura without looking. Understanding the boy's meaning Kakashi tossed the book at Sakura, who caught it and quickly shoved it in her hip pouch with a blush.

"So," Kurenai began, "thoughts?"

The one-eyed Jounin had already flipped his orange book open, and replied without looking up from its pages, "Hmmm. Good planning and coordination I'd say. Shorty needs to learn how to pick his shots more carefully though."

"Anko?" asked Kurenai.

"Just make sure you give them enough free time for the kid to get me my dango."

Kurenai took a few seconds to mentally review the events of the morning. She had decided to pass the team while watching them plan yesterday, and seeing their execution today had only confirmed her decision. She was looking forward to working with this group.

"I didn't expect you three to succeed with the test, but you were a lot closer than I thought you would be. I'm happy to announce that Team Eight officially passes! We'll start team training and missions tomorrow."

Kurenai watched with a smile as Sakura threw her arms into the air and cheered. Next to her Naruto pulled himself to his feet with a small smile on his face. Even Shino brought a hand to his face to adjust his sunglasses.

"If you three have no plans for this afternoon," Kurenai continued, "I'm inviting you to my place for lunch to celebrate. We can also go over how you guys did with the test."

"Great!" Anko cheered, grabbing Naruto by the back of his collar and pulling him out of the clearing before he could resist, "we'll be there in a bit with dango and booze!"

* * *

**Glossary/Notes:**

Bento: Packed meal.

Bunshin: Clone.

Hitai-ate: Forehead protector.

Jiji: Old man. Naruto's way of referring to Sarutobi.

Kunoichi: Female ninja.

Kyuubi: Nine tails. The Demon Fox.

Shunshin: Body Flicker.

Tokubetsu Jounin: Special Jounin.

The fake Icha-Icha lines are a yaoi-ized version of the Icha-Icha lines from Nugar's People Lie. Used with permission.

3/20/10: Removed unnecessary semicolon, removed one word for stylistic reasons.

3/19/10: First Upload


	3. Even in the Midst of Flowing Time

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Three: Even In the Midst of Flowing Time

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

On their first day as an official team Kurenai assembled them at the crack of dawn to evaluate their skills and abilities, and had begun by putting them through a three-hour long workout that could have matched Maito Gai's in intensity if not in duration. As she expected Sakura fell behind quickly while Shino kept up past the halfway mark. Naruto was able to complete the entire workout, though he was barely standing afterwards.

Team Eight was allowed time to recover as she gave them a lecture on the different classes of missions and the exact duties they would be expected to perform as new Genin. No matter how potentially well-trained, new academy graduates were still preteens. Kurenai had heard horror stories from more experienced Jounin instructors about Genin who, discovering the drudgery that was D-rank missions, had thrown temper tantrums at the mission hall or in front of the Hokage. She had no intention of allowing that to happen with her team.

That was followed by an hour of shuriken and kunai testing. Unlike academy practice however, Kurenai had her students throwing from a variety of situations: strafing on the run, retreating, throwing from a quick turn, crouched in a tree, mid-jump, and others. As his academy evaluations suggested he would, Shino performed solidly if unspectacularly in all situations. Because of this Kurenai set him to practicing a number of more advanced throwing techniques that weren't covered by academy lessons, such as throwing from the draw in one motion and concealing the throwing motion to hide the projectile's flight path before it left the thrower's hand.

Sakura's was adequate from a stationary posture, putting the majority of her projectiles into the target painted on the large tree stump. While on the move though her aim deteriorated badly, and she could only hit the stump itself with any consistency. Kurenai did what she could to correct the girl's throwing motion as well as giving her additional tips, but ultimately concluded that what Sakura needed was simply a lot more practice.

It didn't surprise her that Naruto was wildly off the mark when throwing on the move, managing to hit the stump only once all session. It did surprise her however when he missed the stump far more often than not from stationary throwing postures. In fact, he never even managed to touch the target from any throwing posture.

"Naruto, how did you manage to pass the academy thrown weapons test anyway?" she inquired.

"Well, I watched the testing for last year's graduates, so I knew which stumps the instructors would use and how far away I needed to be. I snuck into the academy practice grounds at nights so I could practice like that, and I just kept at it until I… I guess I memorized exactly how my body needed to feel to put my throw on target at each distance."

Naruto looked away, scratching the back of his head. It was clear that he felt a little uncomfortable about having "cheated" in order to pass.

Kurenai simply quirked a brow.

"You mean you practiced at each testing distance until you had the exact movement pattern needed to hit, at each testing distance, committed to muscle memory?"

"Yeah, I guess," Naruto replied sheepishly.

Kurenai briefly contemplated having him do the same thing, for every angle, from every position, at intervals of a few steps at a time, before discarding that idea as both impractically extensive and simply unnecessary. She wondered though, whether he would actually do it if she asked him to and presented him with a convincing argument for why his throwing skills needed to be top notch.

"You don't have to be embarrassed about how you passed. If anything, you deserve credit for finding a solution to your unique situation and then having the determination to work at it until you succeed."

"Um, thanks, I guess." Naruto gave her a small smile at the unaccustomed acknowledgement.

"Just remember," Kurenai said, "every ninja has unique strengths and weaknesses. You know your weaknesses and have found ways to overcome some of them. If you're not good at thrown weapons, you just need to find some way of beating ranged specialists by forcing them to fight where you're strongest."

After the thrown weapons session Kurenai then had each of her students demonstrate all of their ninjutsu abilities, one by one. There were several purposes to this exercise. The obvious one was so she could evaluate their skill with ninjutsu, but it was also so the Genin would be familiar with each other's abilities. Although Sakura only knew the academy basic ninjutsu and had a smaller than average chakra reserve, Kurenai was pleased to note that her academy evaluations were correct about her precise chakra control.

Shino followed next with his own demonstration of the academy basics. He then created a Bunshin out of his Kikaichu and explained the other things he could do with his bugs, such as passing messages with bugs that could tap their hindquarters and planting female bugs with special glands on targets so they could be tracked by scent later. It was at this point that Sakura had insisted quite firmly that he never put any of his bugs on her on pain of getting beaten by an irate kunoichi.

When it was Naruto's turn he dutifully rose and ran through the academy basics, finishing with the sickly-looking Bushin that had almost gotten him failed during the ninjutsu portion of the graduation exam.

"Naruto, create a Bunshin again, but complete the hand seals more quickly this time," Kurenai ordered.

Naruto nodded and complied with her order, completing the seals more quickly and producing another poorly made Bunshin.

"Again."

He tried again, this time racing through the hand seals. As he finished Kurenai discreetly made her own hand seal and hit him with a minor genjutsu, meant to disrupt his concentration with a quick flash of brightness. It wasn't a very useful genjutsu, and would have been automatically tuned out by more experienced shinobi with better chakra control. But with Naruto it was enough.

Kurenai watched as Naruto rubbed the blurriness out of his eye, only to be startled by the sight of a perfectly made Bunshin staring back at him.

"Interesting," Kurenai murmured thoughtfully.

"Kurenai-sensei, what was that flash of light? Did you do something so I could make a Bunshin?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto, did you ever wonder why you were able to trick Mizuki with your Bunshin when you've never been able to make a proper one during academy testing?"

"Not really, I just thought that he'd be too disoriented by the exploding tags to notice how crappy they looked."

"No, Anko watched your fight and told me the Bunshin were virtually perfect copies."

Seeing the confusion in Naruto's expression, Kurenai explained.

"As I thought, you were overloading your Bunshin with chakra. During the fight you produced Bunshin from opposite sides of Mizuki within seconds before attacking from a third, meaning you didn't have time to stand and gather chakra like you do in a classroom test. With the last attempt I hit you with a minor genjutsu to distract you, causing you to lose some of your built up chakra as you created the Bunshin."

"So my problem the whole time was too much chakra?" Naruto asked dubiously, before flicking through the hand seals and creating another Bunshin with none of his usual tension and concentration. Again, it came out perfectly.

"You have an exceptionally large chakra reserve, easily the largest of any Genin I've ever seen. I'm… surprised your academy instructors didn't bring it up," Kurenai said. Actually, she wasn't, but now wasn't the time to deal with that topic.

Naruto's eye widened slightly, while Sakura looked at her teammate skeptically and one of Shino's eyebrows rose.

"In time that's going to be a major advantage, but it's common for ninja with larger than normal capacities to have problems with chakra control," Kurenai continued, "for now we need to work on your control so you're not overloading every jutsu you try. Some of them just get bigger and better with more chakra, but most fizzle out or have even worse consequences for the user."

Afterwards she allowed her team a late lunch break, with Naruto producing a pair of cup ramen while the rest of the team brought out their respective bento. Lunch passed mostly in silence, with the Genin having been sufficiently tired out from the morning's exertions that they put their entire focus into eating. Once everyone had finished Kurenai then moved to the final topic she wanted to cover for the day, taijutsu.

* * *

Standing under the shade of a tree in Team Eight's designated training ground, Shino watched as Naruto once again squared off with his roughly carved wooden katana against their sensei. Naruto settled into a right side forward stance with left heel slightly off the ground, both hands holding the sword at abdomen level with the blade diagonally upwards. The sword isn't a part of the standard Konoha academy curriculum, but Shino recognized this as the most basic and versatile kenjutsu stance from supplementary reading assignments.

Kurenai adopted a left leg forward crouched stance, shoulders squared with most of her weight on her front leg, both hands in a tight guard in front of her face and throat. It was a strongly defensive posture, but difficult to attack out of. For a few seconds the two watched each other in silence, Naruto breathing slightly fast from their previous exchanges.

It was Sakura, after the celebratory lunch at Kurenai's place the day before, who had finally asked Naruto about his fight with Mizuki. From the Jounin's reaction it was evident that Kurenai already knew, and while Shino was curious he had been content to wait until the answer revealed itself in some way. Naruto had then explained his reasoning behind taking up kenjutsu, and how he only practiced taijutsu to the extent that he felt he needed to graduate from the academy.

Naruto made the first move, stepping then lunging forward into a thrust at Kurenai's chest. The Jounin instructor parried the wooden blade to one side and threw a front kick at Naruto's midsection, which was blocked when the blond dropped his weight on his back leg and brought the sword's hilt down to meet the kick. He then flicked the tip of the sword at Kurenai's left temple in a feint before stepping to her right, twisting his hips hard while flipping his hands and sending the blade crashing down diagonally hard at the right side of his sensei's neck.

Kurenai read his intention, and decided to forego a safer attack in favor of the opportunity to test how he dealt with opponents invading his personal space. She put up a hand to guard against the feint before taking advantage of her flexibility to lean back deeply, allowing the blade to pass over her face during the true attack. As she recovered her posture she dashed forward at Naruto, left palm heel flying at his face. Naruto responded by twisting his body to the left, twisting his head out of the path of the palm heel while pulling the blade along at abdomen level with his body motion.

It was a good response, Kurenai thought approvingly, difficult to counter at such close ranges. The only drawbacks were the head twist putting her out of his range of vision, and the fact that a wooden blade instead of steel meant a nasty bruise if it landed rather than a likely disembowelment.

Kurenai dropped her upper body down and forward as if to roll, letting the blade slice harmlessly over her, before continuing the motion into a cartwheel. At the movement's apex she twisted her hips, tapping the back of Naruto's head with her foot.

Deciding to press him more she lunged after his retreating form as soon as she was on her feet again, springing into the air as she approached. As she expected Naruto rooted his stance and brought the katana up to his head to protect against the jumping kick he thought was coming. Kurenai caught a glimpse of the surprise on his face as she flew clear over him in a flip, landing in a crouch with her back to his several steps away.

As soon as she touched down Kurenai sprung off her feet again, this time into a backflip at Naruto. Using the momentum of the movement, she sent the instep of her right foot crashing down on him from directly overhead while she was in an upside-down position in the middle of the backflip. Naruto just barely managed to twist to his right and bring his forearm up to block the attack, not having enough time to turn fully and bring his katana into play. Planting her right fingertips on the ground while still upside down Kurenai shifted her weight to one side and spun like a tilted top, chambering her right leg while whipping her left leg behind her to attack Naruto from his left.

He caught a hint of her intention and tried to shift his body out of the way, but the heel of Kurenai's left leg managed to clip him painfully in the back of the ribs on his left side. A second later she struck with her chambered right leg in a thrust kick, connecting with the fleshy part of Naruto's right upper arm. Kurenai pushed against his arm, sending him staggering away from her while she used the motion to flip out of her tilted upside-down posture to land upright in a crouch facing Naruto.

"Enough." Kurenai said with a raised hand. "Shino, Sakura, you two are up next."

The bug user and the pink-haired kunoichi made their way to the center of the clearing while Kurenai and Naruto took their place in the shade. Sakura adopted the academy standard taijutsu ready position, while Shino used a variant with a deeper posture and his front hand placed more aggressively to take advantage of his height and weight advantage.

Sakura charged first, meeting a stationary Shino and throwing a series of punches and kicks that Kurenai mentally identified as academy taijutsu training combo number sixteen. Shino blocked and parried his way through the assault with little effort, countering during a break in the combo's rhythm with a stepping palm strike to the abdomen that sent the girl staggering backwards. After a few moments' recovery Sakura attacked with another academy standard combo to the same lack of success, before the bug user latched onto her outstretched fist and pulled it backwards. Sakura stumbled before recovering her balance, just in time for Shino to kick out her front leg across her body while pulling her arm in the opposite direction, dropping her straight down to the ground in a boneless heap.

Kurenai frowned slightly as Shino took a few steps back to give Sakura space to return to her feet. After two exchanges Sakura was already beginning to breathe heavily, while Shino was absolutely still in his stance, showing no visible signs of exertion.

In addition to basic shinobi skills academy students were also required to learn everything civilian children of their age did. Because of that academy classes tended to focus their limited time on teaching new skills and knowledge, leaving physical training to the students on their own initiative. Clan children invariably had supplementary training with family members. But it seemed that Sakura, coming from a civilian home, lacked the background and motivation to have made a serious effort outside of academy classes. Kurenai added that to her mental list of things she would have to work with the pink-haired girl on.

Beside her Naruto had flipped out a small wood carving knife from his pocket was now working on the half-finished sword in his hand, alternation his attention from the sword to the match before him. While the two combatants in the center of the clearing circled each other, Kurenai sent the boy a questioning glance.

"The one I used against Mizuki got badly cracked, and I've learned it's easier to just make my own replacements instead of scrounging every time I break one in practice." Naruto replied simply, and then added after a moment's pause, "It's a good skill to have when you want to repair your own furniture too."

"But that looks more like a samurai-style katana doesn't it?"

Naruto shrugged, shaving another sliver of wood off the katana. "My first sword was a wooden ANBU-style ninja-to. I've been gradually adapting the sword design to fit my own needs with each new version. Making the sword longer helps with more reach, and the curved blade is better for slashing attacks."

Kurenai nodded, turning her attention back to the fight.

This time Shino took the initiative, throwing a series of quick probing attacks designed to keep Sakura on the defensive before winding up a leaping spinning back crescent kick that crashed through Sakura's guard. Even though Shino had deliberately used only the minimum amount of strength necessary on the attack, it still sent Sakura reeling across the clearing.

"Enough, you can stop now," Kurenai called out, and the two combatants rejoined the rest of their team in the shade. Shino accepted the bottled water Naruto proffered with a nod of acknowledgement, while their Jounin instructor placed her hands on Sakura's face where Shino had struck. Kurenai wasn't a medic-nin by any stretch of the imagination, but she had picked up enough to be able to deal with bruises and other minor injuries.

"After seeing all of you sparring, I now have a good idea of where we are and how I want each of you to progress. Sakura, you have a good intellectual understanding of the taijutsu taught at the academy, but you haven't internalized it enough to make yourself an effective fighter. The biggest problem though is the fact that you lack stamina, as well as the strength and flexibility to use a lot of the techniques and strategies effectively."

Sakura accepted her instructor's words without comment. While she didn't like any aspect of her ninja skills belittled, she acknowledged that her physical conditioning was sorely lacking compared to the rest of her team.

"So," Kurenai continued, "I'm going to come by your place later tonight with a scroll of exercises for you to do on your own time, and I expect you to follow the schedule to the best of your ability. Once we bring you up to a decent point physically we'll work on improving your sparring skills."

Kurenai then turned to the bug user.

"Shino, I noticed you made adjustments to the basic academy style to take advantage of your height and weight. But you rely too much on blocking and not enough on movement, so in sparring I want you to focus on dodging where you would normally block, and sidestepping where you'd move forwards or backwards. Evasion and lateral movement give you more options in a fight. Against certain fighters like the Hyuuga with their Jyuuken, dodging is a much better option than blocking."

She then turned to her last student.

"Naruto, with kenjutsu your instincts are sharp and you have good efficiency of movement. You tend to get sloppy when an exchange gets too long though, probably because you haven't had a partner to practice against until now. You need more experience sparring to polish what you already know, but I also want you to keep up with taijutsu in your own practice time so you won't be completely overwhelmed if you lose your sword in a fight."

Kurenai allowed her students a few moments to absorb what she'd said, before clapping her hands together to attract their attention.

"Now, I think Team Eight is ready for its first official mission."

* * *

Kurenai's team had been amongst the last to arrive at the mission hall that day, as she had spent so much time evaluating her team's skills. Only two D-rank missions were left at the time, processing herbs and delivering packages for an herbalist who lived at the edge of town, or catching the Daimyo's wife's cat Tora. Kurenai chose the former without hesitation.

Her timing proved fortuitous, as Asuma's Team Ten made their way through the doors of the mission hall not a second later. Unlike her team, disheveled and dirty from exercise and sparring, his Genin looked like they had just spent the day lying around talking and playing shogi.

'If Asuma deals with the Nara kid like he dealt with the kid's father,' Kurenai thought, 'they probably had.'

Kurenai gathered her Genin and led them out the door quickly, giving the bearded Jounin an evil smirk as she passed. The two had graduated in the same academy class, and Kurenai remembered quite well how much Asuma hated the Tora retrieval mission as a Genin. The original Tora had died some years back, but if the reaction of last year's Jounin instructors were any indication the daughter was just as bad as the mother.

Kurenai led her team to the edge of town where Herbalist Ninomai lived, stopping by a public fountain so they could quickly wash up from the day's exertions. Once there they were met by an old woman with ash-gray hair in a bun, apron tied around her waist and smelling strongly of medicine. Herbalist Ninomai looked the team over, giving Naruto a startled second glance, then stepped aside to let them in her house without comment. Within a few minutes she had explained how to sort and package the various herbal mixes, before handing Kurenai a list of matched mixes and delivery locations and leaving for the forest with basket in hand to collect herbs for the next few days' orders.

Seeing the opportunity to talk to each Genin on her team privately, Kurenai suggested that two of them handled deliveries while the third stayed with her. She sent Naruto and Sakura out first on separate delivery routes, leaving Shino alone with her. Of her three students, Shino was the most balanced in terms of abilities. What he needed was simply more interaction with the others to develop a bond of camaraderie, so she decided to probe his opinion of his teammates.

"So Shino," Kurenai began casually as she wrapped another bundle of herbs, "what do you think of your team so far?"

The bug user's hands paused as he gathered his thoughts. Kurenai waited patiently. The Aburame were known for speaking very deliberately, and prodding Shino before he was ready with a response would not serve a useful purpose.

"At first, I was concerned with our combat capabilities as a team. Team Ten has Chouji and the dynamic of their clan abilities, while Team Seven has two of the top-ranked fighters from our class plus a Jyuuken user. By academy rankings I'm the best at taijutsu in the team, and though I have confidence in my abilities I'm not a close combat specialist."

Kurenai nodded, waiting for Shino to continue. The Aburame were also quite analytical, and she had expected Shino to note the team's weakness in combat, at least according to academy records.

"After watching Naruto spar, and facing off against him myself, I have come to the conclusion that my concerns were unfounded. With kenjutsu he might be near Uchiha Sasuke or Inuzuka Kiba's level of fighting ability. With Naruto as our close combat specialist and some more training, I feel that Team Eight has enough capability to overcome any Genin-level combat situations."

"How do you feel about Sakura then?"

The only sign of Shino's discomfort with the question was a quick poke of his finger to adjust his sunglasses.

"Sakura is very intelligent and has exceptional chakra control, but is a poor fighter. At present she is a negligible part of the team's combat capabilities, though that may change with more training. I suspect that she was put on this team so that she could specialize in genjutsu to take advantage of her chakra control."

That was an option Kurenai had considered as well. Like most genjutsu users, she was not nearly as good at close combat as the specialists like Asuma or Maito Gai. Genjutsu specialists typically stayed at range, striking under cover of a genjutsu and retreating as soon as the advantage of surprise was lost. Fighting this way, Sakura would be able to sidestep some of her problems. But in order to be effective the pink-haired girl would need to improve her thrown weapons skills considerably, as genjutsu specialists needed to take advantage of any opening accurately and instantaneously.

The two let the rest of the time pass in silence until Naruto and Sakura returned from their delivery runs. This time Kurenai had Sakura stay behind to give the girl a break, while the boys would each take two back to back delivery shifts.

Kurenai chose her angle of approach as she ushered the boys out with their packages and routes. She had already pointed out Sakura's shortcomings in taijutsu and physical conditioning, so now it was time to look at the girl's motivation.

"Sakura, where do you see yourself going as a kunoichi, skill wise?"

"Sensei?" the girl asked uncertainly.

"Do you see yourself, for example, specializing in any particular field?"

"Well, I think I might be interested in learning medical ninjutsu."

That answer surprised Kurenai. Medic-nins needed greater chakra control than even genjutsu specialists. Even the most talented medic-nins did not develop that level of control until mid-Chunin level, and most Jounin of other specializations never managed it at all. Because of that academy lessons only focused on basic first aid practices such as bandaging and splinting, and never touched on even the basic theories of medical ninjutsu.

"That's an interesting choice Sakura. To be honest I've never seen a fresh Genin with a level of chakra control like yours. Even most Jounin don't have quite the level of control required to be a medic-nins, but with enough practice I could easily see you getting there in the near future."

The pink-haired girl beamed at the compliment. Kurenai decided then that she would make chakra control exercises a priority during team training, starting with tree walking tomorrow. It would help Sakura get to medic-nin level faster, but Naruto also sorely needed more control as well.

Kurenai spent the rest of their time together asking more innocuous questions. She gently probed about Sakura's home life and childhood, masking it with idle "girl chatter" that Kurenai knew from her own experience would set most girls at Sakura's age at ease. She could infer a great deal about some of the other rookie Genin based on shared clan characteristics, and she had learned quite a bit about Naruto's past from the file the Hokage had given her. But with Sakura coming from a civilian background, Kurenai didn't know much about the girl beyond her academic records and interactions with teammates over the past two days.

Once the boys returned, Kurenai sent Shino and Sakura out with the last load of deliveries for the day while she set Naruto to preparing the rest of Herbalist Ninomai's collected herbs for tomorrow's deliveries.

The months he spent hospitalized or in detention had effectively taken away an entire year from him at an age where most kids started forming serious bonds of friendship with their peers, and that was on top of the social isolation he suffered as the Kyuubi's container. The blond had all the determination in the world; she had no doubt of that. But that determination had lost its focus after he had fulfilled his promise to the Hokage. She still remembered how he had floundered for a goal during his self-introduction.

What Naruto needed now was a defined role to play within the team, something only he could do. Something he could focus on again.

"Naruto, what do you see your role in the team as?"

"What do you mean sensei? I'm supposed to complete missions with my team aren't I?"

"Yes, but that's not what I'm asking. The reason that Genin are put on three person teams is so their skills can complement each other. For example, Sakura is very intelligent and has the potential to be very good at genjutsu or medical ninjutsu, but she's not a good close combat fighter. Shino is capable at taijutsu, but his clan's ability with Kikaichu makes him more suited for a scouting and support role."

"So," Naruto replied after a moment's thought, "I would be the close combat specialist in Team Eight right?"

"Yes, with kenjutsu you're already better than Shino in combat, and I expect you to improve with more practice. As a genjutsu specialist, when we get into combat situations as a team I'm most effective fighting from range. That means you're the one who's going to be engaging enemies up close. Every attack that you can draw onto yourself is one that isn't aimed at your teammates. If an enemy manages to get past you in close combat, Shino or Sakura would stand less of a chance than you.

"I'm not asking you to sacrifice yourself for your team. What I am saying though is that, in a very real way, your teammates' lives will depend on your ability to protect them. In the future I may be asking more of you in terms of training than I might your teammates; more than you might think is fair. But in order for this team to have the best chance of surviving dangerous missions, you need to be as prepared as you can possibly be. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Naruto nodded somberly. He had worked at a frenetic pace to improve his own skills so he could fulfill his promise to graduate from the academy, but he had not until now considered what role he would play in a team.

Kurenai smiled at him, and decided to change the flow of the conversation to lift his mood.

"That's not the only role you can play in this team though. Think back to our first day as a team, when you were planning for my test. What did you do then?"

"Planning for the test? I guess… I guess I suggested the basic idea for the plan we eventually used."

"You actually suggested more than a dozen different plans. Shino and Sakura did their part in pointing out flaws or refining ideas, but the original ideas mostly came from you. That kind of quick adaptability and improvisation is very valuable for a shinobi, even if some of your ideas were…"

Kurenai trailed off. She couldn't think of a word that meant equal parts of inspired, bizarre, and unethical, so she settled for an indistinct hand gesture.

"Well, I just came at the problem like I would a prank. It's not like that kind of thing would help in a fight."

"Naruto, you're a ninja now," Kurenai said with some emphasis. "The academy concentrates on fighting skills because it's the easiest to teach at your age, and the most immediately useful. But being a ninja isn't about fighting all the time, that's what thugs do. The most skilled ninja are the ones who manage to get in, complete their mission, and get out without anyone else even noticing.

"Your ability to come up with ideas makes it possible to approach your mission target in ways that its defenders may not even have thought to protect against. If you can do that, it doesn't matter how strong their defenses are because you've just completely bypassed them.

"Don't sell yourself short when it comes to fighting either, because that kind of thinking did help you in fighting Mizuki. When it's just taijutsu or kenjutsu fights are fast and instinctive. But when you add in ninjutsu and genjutsu, combat becomes a lot more mental and tactical, like a game of shogi. There have been many instances of weaker fighters winning because they used unexpected strategies."

Naruto nodded slowly, lost in thought as his hands worked on herbs automatically. Kurenai allowed the conversation to lapse, working on her own stack of herbs in silence for a few minutes, before she noticed Naruto's features shift slightly.

"Sensei, I might have an idea," Naruto said, some uncertainty audible in his tone.

"Yes?"

"You know when I stole that scroll? I told Jiji all about what Mizuki wanted ahead of time and he told me to go ahead with what the traitor said, but he replaced the scroll with another before I stole it."

Kurenai simply nodded. She was used to Naruto's casual way of addressing Konoha's most important and powerful ninja by now, and it was evident the Hokage had a certain fondness for the boy as well.

"Well, I've got some ideas from that scroll, and… "

As she listened to Naruto lay out his thoughts, she allowed herself a small smile at the boy's enthusiasm and creativity. She knew just who to bring in to help Naruto. It was simply a matter of getting her to agree.

* * *

"Why me? Why not Hayate or his girlfriend?"

"I asked. He says his style was passed down in his family, and he's not comfortable teaching it to someone he doesn't know. Uzuki-san's busy with an assignment, she told me she wouldn't be in Konoha regularly until after the start of the Chunin exams."

"So I ask again, why me? It's not like I run around Konoha with one strapped to my back."

"You're the most logical choice. Out of all the adult shinobi population in Konoha, he only has a positive relationship with the two of us and the Third. We can't just go and ask Hokage-sama to personally train him, and between the two of us you're the better candidate."

Tearing the last dango off its skewer with her teeth, Anko casually flicked her wrist and impaled the now-bare stick into a nearby tree.

Kurenai had never made secret her disapproval of Anko's dietary preferences, so when the red-eyed Jounin had invited her to a dango lunch the first weekend after academy graduation, Anko had a pretty good idea this wasn't just a social visit. When Kurenai had offered to pay, Anko knew that she was going to be asked to do something she most likely wouldn't want to do.

She didn't expect Kurenai's request to be kenjutsu training for Naruto. Having been through ANBU training she was competent with a long blade, though not nearly to the level of a specialized swordsman like Hayate Gekkou. But her twisted relationship with her own mentor, in her younger days, hardly made her an ideal candidate as any sort of teacher for an impressionable young Genin. That and the fact that she was quite openly against the idea of being a teacher, having turned down a number of requests from the Hokage to take up Genin teams over the last few years.

Across the table from her Kurenai picked up a stick of dango and nibbled at it. Unlike Anko and her avowed loyalty to her namesake syrup-covered dango, Kurenai had chosen the green tea flavored type.

Anko crinkled her nose in distaste at her lunch partner's choice. Despite counting tea ceremony as one of her hobbies, Anko had a strange aversion to any green tea-flavored foods. For Kurenai though, who was Anko's opposite in nearly every way including an intense dislike of dango, green tea flavor was one of the only types she would willingly eat.

Anko picked up another stick of dango, pointing it at Kurenai and twirling the stick with her fingers to prevent the syrup from dripping.

"So I'm the most logical choice, from your point of view. But what makes you think I'll actually agree?"

"You like Naruto, I can tell. You see a younger version of yourself in him," Kurenai pointed out.

Anko snorted. "Not enough to spend my time teaching the kid when I could be taking missions or getting drunk or, you know, doing anything else fun."

Looking around quickly to make sure no one was watching, Kurenai turned to Anko and turned on the full power of her puppy-eyes look, complete with pouting mouth. In the process of pulling another dango off the stick, Anko choked it down with a cough before glaring at her companion with an audible growl in her throat.

Anyone who knew the two would have found the sight bizarre. Many who acquainted with Anko on a casual basis thought her to be borderline sociopathic and possibly insane. In fact, it was an image she had taken some effort to cultivate. She was known to growl at people, but generally as a prelude to trying to separate their more important internal organs from their bodies. Kurenai on the other hand was widely seen as reserved, even somewhat cold; no one could possibly imagine her giving anyone a puppy-dog eyes look under any situation.

For the two of them however, it was just part of the pattern of odd back and forth interaction they had established as part of their friendship.

"Assuming I accept," Anko finally said with a sigh, "and I'm not saying I do, what am I working with?"

"You saw him in the Mizuki fight, and you told me you watched him taking practice swings in ANBU lockup."

"You're his Jounin instructor now, you must have sparred him a few times. So tell me, what's your evaluation?"

"He has good instincts with a sword, like you said," Kurenai replied. "As far as I know the Mizuki fight was the first time he's had an opponent, sparring or not, and he's already the best fighter on my team. What he needs is someone who knows kenjutsu to make minor corrections and enhancements to his basic techniques and postures, and most of all more experience sparring."

"You know I don't do light sparring. If I do this he's going to get roughed up bad."

Kurenai knew from firsthand experience that was true. Practice sparring with the trench coated tokubetsu Jounin wasn't much different from full scale war.

"To be honest, it's what he needs. What the team needs as a whole in fact. The other two Genin teams this year have combat specialist Jounin team leaders, and the other two Genin on my team aren't suited for close combat. He understands that I'm going to make demands on him above and beyond the norm, and you know he has the willpower to see things through once he's made up his mind. Just… don't hurt him so badly that he can't walk out of the hospital afterwards ok?"

Anko didn't respond, choosing pulling another dango off the stick instead. She really did like Naruto. As Kurenai had said, of Konoha's adult population the only ones who knew the kid in any meaningful way were the two of them and the Hokage himself. She could see in him the same sense of longing that she herself had in her younger days. She could also see just how desperately he worked in order to prove himself to the Hokage. As someone with a fierce loyalty to the Hokage herself, due to his unwavering support of her and shielding her from the repercussions of her former master's actions, that was a quality that Anko could respect.

Kurenai saw the indecision in her friend's eyes, and played her trump card.

"If it helps, I can sweeten the pot. If you agree to this, I'll let you help Naruto on another project that he's working on."

Anko looked at the genjutsu mistress as if she'd grown a second head.

"You're trying to bribe me to help the kid," Anko said carefully, waving her now-bare dango stick at the other woman in a swirling pattern as if to emphasize her point, "with an offer of letting me help the kid with something else?"

Kurenai replied by motioning for Anko to lean closer with her fingers, then moved closer herself and began whispering in Anko's ear.

As she listened, Anko's expression changed from a quizzical frown to a smile. By the time Kurenai had finished a broad grin was plastered on Anko's face, and the indistinct sound that had begun deep in her throat erupted into a series of mad cackles. The outburst attracted the attention of the dango shop's other patrons, and several faces turned to stare at the two female Jounin. Kurenai saw expressions ranging from curiosity to apprehension, the latter no doubt wondering whether the trench coated tokubetsu Jounin had finally snapped.

Once Anko finally regained control of herself, she wiped the spittle from her mouth with one hand while flicking the dango stick at the nearby tree with her other.

"Fine. I'll start teaching the kid on weekends when you don't have team practice. Tell him to find me tomorrow around noon."

Kurenai simply smiled in reply. For all her odd tendencies and frightening reputation, Anko was unusually easy to read and manipulate for someone of her rank and experience as a shinobi. That was, provided that you were one of the few people who had managed to penetrate her harsh exterior shell to get to know her well.

And Kurenai knew Anko very well.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen leaned back in his plush leather reclining chair, taking a long puff from his pipe.

He sighed as he set aside yet another pile of completed paperwork. It had been nearly three weeks since the latest batch of academy students graduated, and he was expecting the outburst any day now. Each year some rookie Genin or other always snapped, refusing to do another Tora retrieval or potato digging mission. Once one team had gotten a C-rank mission, the others would then demand the same.

It was a rite of passage really. There was a prepared speech that was fed to the Genin, something or other about D-rank missions building teamwork. In truth, D-rank missions were just grunt work around the village that needed to be done. They were a way for industrious Genin to make a bit of spending money, and a way for Jounin instructors to examine their team's social interaction in different settings. But for Genin trying to improve their shinobi skills, the only one with any real training value was the cat retrieval mission that always seemed to pop up every other day or so.

Sarutobi thought back to his own instructor days, when his Genin team had been the first to get a C-rank mission in their graduating class. Surprisingly, it had been Tsunade who had thrown the tantrum. It was after yet another cat retrieval mission, with the hotheaded blonde dragging in a vicious little beast named Kasha by the scruff of its neck.

On reflection, he supposed that it really wasn't that surprising. Orochimaru was always the quiet type, and Jiraiya had been too busy ogling the Fire Daimyo's mistress' ample breasts to complain that day. That one had always been a pervert, even as a preteen. Sarutobi just hadn't noticed it at the time.

The rattling of his office's glass windows, accompanied by a low roaring noise, shook Sarutobi out of his reverie. Aged muscles groaned at the unaccustomed demands of speed as he jolted out of his chair, disappearing from his office and reappearing at the top of the Hokage Tower in a Shunshin. His eyes scanned around anxiously, looking for any sign of hostile shinobi attacking, until they settled on a plume of smoke rising from deep within the forest to the east. If he remembered right, that was where one of the most isolated training grounds was situated. In fact, it was so far out of the way that only one Jounin had reserved it in the last few years.

Sarutobi's mind made the connection instantly, and he groaned. If this was what he thought it was, he would soon be faced with a lot more paperwork. He made his way back to the Hokage Office, in a slow walk this time, dispatching a pair of Chunin to investigate the explosion on the way.

It wasn't long after he had settled back in his office and refilled his pipe that the two Chunin he had dispatched returned escorting confirmation of his worst fears, in the form of Mitarashi Anko followed closely by Uzumaki Naruto. Both grinning like lunatics.

'This isn't going to be good,' he thought to himself.

"This isn't going to be good," he said aloud.

"Hokage-sama," Anko greeted the Hokage respectfully, without losing her grin. It only made her seem more maniacal.

Sarutobi put his pipe down and rubbed at his temples.

"So, what happened?"

"Well Jiji," Naruto started, "you know that scroll… "

Sarutobi gave a slight nod without looking up, prompting Naruto to continue. He knew exactly which scroll Naruto was referring to, and was beginning to regret letting the boy keep it after that night.

"I wanted to see how big I could make one."

Sarutobi really didn't want to know. Whatever the answer was, it would only bring more paperwork. But he was the Hokage, and he had a duty to Konoha. So he mentally squared his shoulders, looked up at Naruto, and asked the question.

"So… how big was it?"

"Well, you know how big my bedroom is?"

The Hokage nodded uncertainly.

"That big."

It took a minute for Sarutobi to understand what Naruto had actually said.

An exploding tag's explosive force came from nothing more than the creator's chakra, imbued into the ink used in the creation process. In order to use that stored chakra the ink had to then be painted in specific patterns, creating a stable seal matrix which also needed to be sustained with imbued chakra during the painting process. The balance this created was what allowed tags to be used by even academy students with their limited chakra reserves, as any chakra applied to the tag would destabilize the trigger seal, initiating the burn that would result in the eventual disintegration of the seal matrix containing the explosive chakra.

Explosive tags were very costly to make in terms of chakra, and the typical Genin who tried to make one would most likely end up in the hospital for chakra exhaustion. They had been popular early in shinobi history, but had gradually fallen by the wayside as new jutsu were created that could replace their utility, without preparation beforehand and requiring much less chakra for the same level of damage caused. They were still useful in specific situations against ninja of lesser experience, and were one of the ways retired or disabled Jounin could earn money.

Those Jounin stuck to creating tags using established formulas though. By the time a ninja built up enough of a chakra reserve to create tags, they invariably had also acquired enough experience to know that tags weren't useful against skilled opponents. Thus there was little point experimenting beyond the basic designs.

And then there was Naruto, with his enormous chakra supply, wild inventiveness, and a seemingly complete lack of caution.

"You," Sarutobi said slowly, "created an explosive tag, the size of your bedroom, took it to training ground thirty-nine, and set it off."

"I actually painted the seal right on the ground. It took me a week just to prepare the ink and two days to create the seals. It was a good thing there wasn't any rain last night. I made eight cascading chains of explosive nodes, all linked to one central trigger node, and altered the fuses so that they would all go off at the same time once the last node of each chain triggered!"

Naruto's smile seemed to get impossibly wide as he finished. He evidently took a great deal of pride in what he had just done.

The Hokage turned next to Anko, who was still grinning madly. "And what was your role in this?"

"I just supervised. I made sure the kid didn't blow himself up, and that there was no one else in the training area. Naruto did all the work."

"How much damage was there? The smoke plume was visible from the top of the Hokage Tower."

"All of it, Hokage-sama."

"All of… what?"

"The entire training ground. It's one big crater now. The kid basically poured nine days' worth of his chakra into making this thing."

Sarutobi's eyebrow twitched. Thirty-nine was one of the smallest training grounds, but it was still a decent sized plot of land. He could see the paperwork now. Resurfacing, landscaping, replanting. Everything would need to be documented and signed in triplicate.

There was also the matter of what to do about the perpetrators. Technically they hadn't done anything wrong, so he couldn't punish them. But it simply didn't seem appropriate to praise them for blowing up an entire training ground. After some thought, Sarutobi settled for the most neutral response he could think of.

"Naruto, now that you've conducted your experiment I hope there won't be a need for any repeats. Training grounds are expensive to rebuild."

"Of course not Jiji. Like I said, I just wanted to test how big I could make one. Besides, even I have enough common sense to know that an explosive tag that takes nine days to make and can't be moved isn't really useful."

Sarutobi could only smile at that.

"Very well, Naruto. If there's nothing else I suppose you two can leave."

Anko gave the Hokage a respectful bow, pushing Naruto's head down into a rough bow at the same time, before turning and leading him out. The two Chunin who had escorted them in left with them as well.

Watching the pair leave his office with a bounce in their steps, the Hokage reflected back to the events of that day. After informing Anko and Ibiki of Mizuki's plot, he had immediately gone to his residence to switch the forbidden jutsu scroll out with a replacement. The only scroll Sarutobi had found that matched the forbidden jutsu scroll in appearance though bore the title "The Art and Theory of Advanced Explosive Tag Design."

Once the events of the night finished playing out, Naruto had asked to keep the scroll so he could read more. Sarutobi had agreed, seeing no harm in it at the time and thinking it was just some passing fancy. It wasn't until a week later, when he visited Naruto to see how the boy was coping with being a Genin, that he discovered Naruto's new hobby of manufacturing explosives in his apartment. It turned out that some of Naruto's extracurricular reading over the last year had included basic seal theory, giving him the foundation he needed to understand the topics covered in the scroll.

The Hokage wondered if he should have just let Naruto steal the actual forbidden jutsu scroll instead. As dangerous as some of the jutsu in that scroll were, at least there wasn't the possibility of the boy doing something that might end up blowing all of Konoha off the map.

Sarutobi refilled and relit his pipe, then leaned back in his chair to take a deep puff.

In truth, no matter how much paperwork this caused he was glad to see Naruto like that again. He had watched the boy grow up, and the grin he had just seen was one he knew very well. Every time Naruto was caught after a particularly spectacular prank Sarutobi could expect to see the boy in his office wearing that expression. Naruto had become more guarded with his emotions after his brush with death, and had stopped his pranks entirely.

Today was the first time Sarutobi had seen that grin in two years, and it still warmed his heart.

* * *

Sitting on the branch of a large tree, Kurenai watched from above as her three students practiced water walking below her. Sakura had mastered tree climbing on the third day of Team Eight's official existence, and Shino soon after. Both had spent more than two weeks on water walking now, and were exchanging blows at close to normal speed while standing on the surface of the small lake that bordered Team Eight's training ground. Sparring this way they were nearly evenly matched, as Shino didn't quite have Sakura's level of control and still occasionally had problems with footing.

Naruto had only managed to master tree climbing after nearly two weeks of effort, and was now further down the lake taking slow tentative steps on the water, face scrunched up in complete concentration. Kurenai winced sympathetically as he lost control once again, the surge of chakra from his feet blasting him off the water and sending him tumbling back onto the shore.

Naruto jumped back onto his feet, frustration visible on his face. With a curse he stripped off and threw aside his shirt, soaked and dirty from his multiple failures resulting either in being dunked into the water or being hurled back onto the shore. He stalked angrily to the edge of shore, expression full of intent, only to be blasted back even more violently than before on his first step over water.

Kurenai dropped off her perch and put a firm hand on his shoulder before he could repeat the process.

"Calm down," she chided gently, "being angry will just make it harder."

"It's just," he gesticulated wildly, "I was doing better in the morning and now I can't even take more than a couple steps!"

"You're tired and frustrated Naruto, that's affecting your control. Close your eyes, calm yourself, and take some deep breaths before you try again."

Naruto complied, closing his eye and trying to breathe deeply. With how angry he had been though, his first few breaths went in and out rapidly, feeling more like violent shudders. Kurenai kept her hand firm on his shoulder, feeling his pulse gradually slow and his breathing become more even as he calmed himself. When she judged that all the tension in his shoulder was gone, she released her grip.

"Keep your eyes closed and just walk forward slowly. You've done this enough times to know where the shore ends by now."

Naruto took two final deep breaths, and then began walking forward. One foot before the other, hesitantly at first, then with more confidence as the surface under him flattened out. His eye remained closed, and he kept his breathing even, moving each foot in the interval between an exhale and the next inhale.

Kurenai watched as Naruto took nearly twenty steps on water before his control finally slipped and he sank into the lake with a splash. She waited patiently until he had struggled his way back to the shoreline, and then offered her hand to pull him the rest of the way out.

"That was pretty good. The best you've done today isn't it?" Kurenai offered.

"By two steps," Naruto replied, "I guess calming down really helped."

"Just like how you were this morning, before your repeated failures made you angry. You have a good work ethic, but take this as a lesson that not everything can be overcome by just trying again and again. Sometimes, you have to take a step back and start from the beginning."

Naruto simply nodded; a thoughtful look on his face.

"Good, now get cleaned up and come join the rest of the team. It's about time to break for the day."

With that Kurenai left him for her other two students. Waiting until they had broken apart from another exchange, she called out and waved them back to shore. By the time Sakura and Shino had dried off to the best of their ability from their tumbles into the lake during sparring Naruto had rejoined them, wearing a new outfit with a towel over his shoulder while he wrung his practice clothes dry. After the first day of water walking practice, Naruto had taken to the habit of bringing another set of clothes to team training sessions so he wouldn't have to walk home completely soaked and dirty.

Kurenai looked over her students. In the three weeks since they had become her charges, they had started to bond as a team. This was helped in no small part by the lunch gatherings she threw for them every weekend, under the pretense of inviting them to try some new recipe or other. She was also proud of their growth as individuals, both physically and emotionally. Naruto trained as hard as ever, while Shino kept working at his own steady pace. Even Sakura was taking her physical training seriously, and the results were beginning to show in sparring sessions.

Furthermore none of them spoke out when she had mentioned casually during morning practice that Kakashi's Team Seven had gotten a C-rank mission the day before, an extended patrol deployment on Fire Country's northern border. They didn't even complain when, after lunch, Kurenai led them to the Hokage Tower and deliberately chose the Tora mission.

Asuma was the one who told her about Kakashi's deployment, as he had been leading his team into the mission hall just as Kakashi was leading his out. She suppressed a snicker when she recalled him describing how the Yamanaka girl on his team had thrown a tantrum at falling behind "her Sasuke-kun" when Asuma had decided against taking a C-rank mission that day.

Kurenai still had some concerns about her team; whether Naruto could really handle his role as the team's primary close combatant, and whether Sakura would be able to react properly the first time she was involved in a life or death confrontation. But those were the kind of things that she could evaluate only if her team was under real pressure, and not in the context of performing D-rank missions or during team practice.

She realized this was what one of the older Jounin instructors meant, the night they had all gone out drinking before academy graduation, when he said that the first C-rank mission would be one of the two most difficult choices she would have to make as a Jounin instructor. But it was a decision that needed to be made, and she admitted to herself that she had probably already made it in the morning.

"I want you three to sort your equipment properly tonight, and get plenty of rest." Kurenai declared in her most authoritative tone.

Her students looked at her inquisitively; she had never ended a training session with an order like that before.

"Meet me outside the Hokage Tower 10 a.m. tomorrow. Team Eight is going to get its first C-rank mission."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I've laid the card down revealing what scroll Naruto actually made off with that night. Of the four changes that are at the foundation of this fic, the only question left is what exactly happened during the Kyuubi sealing process.

I took Kage Bunshin away from this Naruto because it's too much of a crutch. At the beginning, canon Naruto's taijutsu isn't much better than untrained thug level, bolstered by a lot of bravado and enthusiasm. He doesn't need to get any better because Kage Bunshin gives him the capability of swarming with endless waves of suicidal clones until something hits. This Naruto doesn't have that option, and will have to both work harder and fight smarter in order to achieve victory in the same situations.

There's also the fact that Kage Bunshin training is basically DBZ gravity training on crack. It was Kishimoto's way of quickly powering up the manga's titular character because he forgot to actually train Naruto up in a meaningful way during the three year training trip. The ability to accelerate learning and practice like that is INCREDIBLY powerful, and any competent shinobi village leader would have made it a fundamental required skill so that the ninja under his command would have a decisive edge in training compared to their same-age peers from other villages.

**Glossary/Notes:**

Bunshin: Clone.

Jiji: Old man. Naruto's way of referring to Sarutobi.

Jyuuken: Gentle Fist.

Kikaichu: Parasitic Destruction Insects.

Kunoichi: Female ninja.

Shogi: Japanese chess.

Shunshin: Body Flicker.

3/26/10: First Upload


	4. Spinning Around and Around

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Four: Spinning Around and Around

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

"Are you sure your team is ready for a C-rank mission Kurenai?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. I believe it's time these three faced challenges greater than Tora and a field of potatoes waiting to be picked."

Sarutobi smiled as he shuffled through the mission orders before him to find an appropriate first time C-rank mission for a Genin team. Team Seven had been the first of the new teams to get a C-rank two days ago, after the Inuzuka boy blew up returning from a Tora mission and demanded something more challenging. Kakashi had not voiced a serious objection at the time. Sarutobi did not know whether this was due to Team Seven's instructor thinking his team was ready for it, or simply being his usual lazy self.

Kurenai wasn't one to be lazy about anything though, being one of the hardest working shinobi the Hokage had ever seen. She had to be in order to rise to her current position as Konoha's foremost genjutsu specialist from her humble civilian background. If she was allowing her team to take a C-rank mission, Sarutobi had no doubt that she thought her team was ready for it.

"Ah, here we go," Sarutobi said, pulling a folder from the pile, "a C-rank mission with an expected duration of two weeks."

Kurenai took the folder and glanced through it quickly, beginning with the client's photo and going through the client's request and background, memorizing important information as she flipped a page every few seconds. By the time they had accomplished the hundreds of missions that were typically necessary for promotion most Jounin had acquired the ability to quickly parse through mission profiles for relevant details in the least amount of time. Kurenai was no exception.

A Wave Country bridge builder named Tazuna, currently staying a nearby inn. Daughter and grandson at home. Protection against bandits until client finishes building a bridge. More or less a typical C-rank bodyguard mission.

Turning to her team, Kurenai handed the folder to Naruto.

"Take this and read through it carefully. Then go home and pack for a two-week deployment. I'll go find our client and meet you at the east gate in two hours."

* * *

Having made her way out of Konoha's east gate half an hour before the designated time, Kurenai was surprised to see that Naruto had arrived even earlier. The blond was seated on a fallen tree by the left side of the road a short distance outside the gate with a large traveling pack on the ground by his side.

He wore his usual attire of T-shirt and cargo pants, in orange and tan respectively this time. The wooden katana, which he usually carried around Konoha in his hands, was now secured to his back with hilt extending over his right shoulder by an improvised rigging of leather straps. Over it all he wore a frumpy and weather-beaten olive-colored cargo jacket that seemed a size or two too large for him, all of its many pockets visibly stuffed with what Kurenai thought were probably kunai and other disposable weapons.

Naruto was seated with his back held straight, staring passively into the distance and doing his best to look as calm and composed as a typical Hyuuga elder. It wasn't a bad effort, Kurenai noted as she approached, but his artificially wooden expression and the jitter in his legs gave him away. As it was his first trip outside Konoha's walls as well as first mission with the possibility of real combat, it was not difficult for Kurenai to deduce that Naruto was trying to suppress his anticipation and nervousness.

"You know, if you want to fool people it's usually easier to turn one thing into another, rather than taking it and making it nothing."

"Eh? What do you mean sensei?" Naruto turned to look at her, confusion visible on his face.

"This is your first C-rank and first time outside Konoha, it's natural to feel excited. You're not doing a bad job of hiding it, but the signs are still there. Your posture is too stiff to be natural, and then there's your leg too."

Naruto looked down at his feet, and then put both hands on the knee of his jittering leg in an exaggerated gesture of stopping the motion. He turned back to his sensei and gave her a slight grin.

"As I said," Kurenai continued with a smile, "it's easier to hide something if you turn it into something else which will look more natural against the background. If you try to hide the thing itself entirely, that can be defeated not only by someone seeing through the disguise, but also by seeing the scene in its entirety and seeing the break in the pattern where something's missing.

"In your case, you can hide your feelings by turning them into something else. You could be pacing back and forth, showing how restless you are from having to wait. Or you could be bored, stretching lazily and tapping your toes to a tune in your head."

"I never really thought about it like that. Thanks sensei."

With that Naruto jumped to his feet and tried to do as Kurenai had suggested. He paced in slow deliberate steps, putting his heel down and rolling onto the ball of his foot before lifting the other foot for a step. The fingers of his right hand tapped lightly against his thigh, drumming to a song in his mind, while his head swayed slightly from side to side with the flow of the music. All in all he presented a fairly good picture of someone who was bored, passing time idly with some imaginary tune playing in his head.

It was then that Kurenai noticed something hanging off his left hip. At first glance she thought it was a ninja-to, held in a poorly made hip sheath angled close to the body for concealment, hilt inclined slightly forward for a quick reverse grip draw. When Naruto turned around in his pacing and began approaching her, she saw the round embouchure hole and realized it was a flute.

"May I?" Kurenai asked, pointing at the instrument with a questioning glance.

"Sure," Naruto replied. He drew the flute as if it were a sword and then handed it to her.

Kurenai took the instrument and looked it over. It was a shinobue, a side-blown bamboo flute with seven finger holes that she was quite familiar with. Kunoichi were encouraged to take optional lessons in various arts such as dance and music to increase their value as infiltration agents, and Kurenai had been an overachiever in this and other respects. She ran a finger lightly over the instrument, noting the rough finish and the uneven edges on some of the tone holes.

"Did you make this yourself?"

"Yeah," Naruto answered. "Jiji said once that I needed to have a hobby so I don't burn out doing nothing but studying and training all the time. There was this movie when I was a kid about a wandering samurai who played a flute he made himself, and I thought that was really cool. So that's why I found a book on how to make and play a shinobue."

Kurenai chuckled at Naruto's explanation of why he took up the shinobue. The reason seemed so typical of Naruto, yet the end result was something she had difficulty picturing against the backdrop of the once-hyperactive blond. Placing her fingers against the holes carefully, she gave each a few experimental taps. She had not played a shinobue in a long time, and this one was shorter version than she was used to, with a tuning that she hadn't played since she was a teenager.

She lifted the instrument gingerly to her lips and, with a questioning glance to Naruto and an acknowledging nod in return, began playing the melody of a shinobue composition that held particular meaning for her. For a few minutes, she allowed herself to be lost in the memories of more innocent days as her fingers danced over the tone holes with a practiced delicacy.

The melody finished, Kurenai lowered the shinobue and turned to Naruto.

"Some of the notes are a little off-key, but this has a pretty good sound for having made it yourself."

"I know," Naruto replied, scratching the back of his head with a smile. "You should have heard my first one. It sounded worse than cats fighting. I think the one I'm in the process of making will come out ok though."

"Are you much good with it?" Kurenai asked.

"Not really. I've learned the scales and some beginner songs from books, nothing like what you just played though sensei. Until now I didn't even know anyone else who could play one."

"I could teach you if you like. I learned how to play the shinobue and koto after becoming a Chunin. It's been a few years since I've played, but it seems like I haven't lost the touch for it yet."

"Really?" Naruto's eye lit up in response. "I'd really like that, if you don't mind. I really want to learn that song you just played too, what is it called?"

She smiled at his enthusiasm. "It's not a problem; we can start with lessons after we come back from this mission. The song's name is Kochou no Yume, Dream of a Butterfly. It's a reference to a very old fable."

"What kind of fable?"

"Hmmm, how do I explain it? Perhaps it's easiest for me to just tell you the fable."

She arranged the words in her mind, watching as Naruto's eye narrowed in concentration.

"There was once a very wise man who dreamed he was a butterfly, fluttering about and living happily as he pleased. Suddenly he woke up, solid and unmistakable in his own body. But he didn't know if he was himself who had dreamt of being a butterfly, or a butterfly who was dreaming of being him now."

"I… I really have no idea what any of that meant."

Kurenai laughed at that response. "Don't worry about it too much Naruto. There are wise people who have spent their entire lives pondering the idea behind this fable. There is a particular meaning for us shinobi though."

"What do you mean sensei?"

"When you look at a situation, you can't assume that what you see and understand is the truth. If you saw that you were a butterfly living a carefree life and just accepted it, you would have closed off in your mind the possibility that you could be a person dreaming of a butterfly. Instead, you need to look for any faults with the reality that you see, and try to figure out if there are any other possibilities than what you currently understand."

It took some time, but she watched as a spark of understanding lit up in Naruto's eye.

"So that's why you like that song. You're a genjutsu specialist, and genjutsu is all about changing reality on your enemies. If they don't look past the reality that you present them, then you've won."

"That's part of it, yes. It has special meaning for genjutsu users, but it's a good idea for all shinobi no matter what specialty. Kakashi has a similar idea, though he prefers to call it 'looking underneath the underneath.'"

"'Looking underneath the underneath?'" Naruto said quizzically, "that sounds kind of dumb. I think your way explained it better."

Kurenai simply smiled and handed the shinobue back to him.

She watched as Naruto took the shinobue from her hands and slid it back into the improvised padded rigging hanging off the left side of his hip. After he pulled a strap tight to secure the shinobue in place and turned back to her, Kurenai voiced the thought in her mind since the conversation started.

"It seems odd though, to picture you playing a shinobue."

"That's what jiji said too. He said that when he told me to get a hobby, he expected something like collecting and comparing ramen, not making and playing my own instrument. He was the one who bought me the carving tools and a bunch of prepared bamboo tubes so I could get started though."

The two let their conversation lapse into a comfortable silence, and Naruto resumed his deliberate pacing while Kurenai took his former place on the fallen tree. It was not long before Shino and Sakura arrived together, having met each other near the east gate.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed as he saw the rest of his team approaching, "now that you're all here I've got something for everyone."

He ran to his traveling pack and pulled out a thick sheaf of what appeared to be small leaflets. Naruto then separated the stack into thirds, giving a portion to his instructor and each of his teammates.

"Explosive tags, four second delay and just a bit more power than ones you get from weapons shops. I made them myself. If you guys need more just let me know."

"You… made these?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, I've started making them after Hokage-jiji lent me a scroll about explosive tags. I mean, I'm not as smart as you are and I don't have Shino's bug abilities, so I have to contribute to the team in some way right?" Naruto replied with a sheepish smile on his face.

Kurenai couldn't decide if the pink-haired girl's surprised reaction came from the fact that Naruto was making explosive tags, or that he had just freely handed her more tags than most Genin could buy with a few months' worth of D-rank mission payments. Shino on the other hand stood stock still, hand still extended from when he received the stack of tags. From his slightly turned head though, the red-eyed Jounin could tell that he was watching and waiting for her to take the lead in responding to Naruto's gift.

Kurenai pulled a tag off her stack and wrapped it around a pebble she picked up from the ground. After a spark of chakra across her fingertips and a small flick of her wrist, the pebble was sent flying into the forest. Exactly four seconds later a small fireball bloomed where the pebble had fallen. She noted that the explosion was, as Naruto had said, noticeably larger than that of a standard tag.

Shino took the demonstration as acceptance, then thanked Naruto and attached several to kunai from his holster before securing the rest in his pack. Sakura hesitated for a few seconds before doing the same.

By the time Team Eight was finished with reorganizing their equipment Tazuna had stumbled past the gate sentries, looking hung-over and squinting in the sunlight. After confirming some mission details with him she then arranged her team into a standard guard formation around him. Tazuna was placed in the center of the formation, while Kurenai herself took the rear so she could watch over her team while guarding against attacks from the formation's most vulnerable direction. Due to Naruto's condition she decided to put him permanently to Tazuna's right, so his one visible eye would always be on the proper side. She then put Sakura to the left and Shino on point with instructions to alternate every hour.

With a final check for readiness, Team Eight set off on its first C-rank mission at Kurenai's hand gesture command.

* * *

The first few hours of the trip to Wave Country passed uneventfully. Sakura barraged Tazuna with questions about Wave Country on topics ranging from local history to politics and economics. The bridge builder responded to her questions with enthusiasm, his sometimes meandering but always detailed answers making evident his pride in his home country.

Wave Country was a small island located off the east coast of Fire Country. Too small to have a hidden village of shinobi of its own, it had nevertheless been a prosperous country in the past. Its past wealth came primarily from Wave Country's status as a shipping hub for international trade, especially between Fire, Lightning, and Water Countries, but also for the various lesser island countries as well. Commercial fishing of the bountiful waters around the island and high-grade specialty textiles also contributed significantly to its economic prosperity.

Recently though an unscrupulous businessman named Gatou had stopped all of Wave Country's shipping business through a combination of hostile takeovers, extortion, and outright force. His goal was to starve the citizens of Wave Country into submission through his economic blockade, forcing them to turn over their lucrative trading business over to his control. Tazuna's bridge was meant to be an economic lifeline to break the blockade, a land link through which supplies could be brought in and trade at least partially resumed. That was the reason why Gatou's hired thugs had been threatening Tazuna. If the bridge was completed Gatou's plans would be ruined.

Kurenai found Tazuna's story somewhat lacking, especially at the points where he would stop and discreetly redirect the drift of his answers. She knew of this Gatou by reputation, and if he was invested heavily enough to try and take over the entirety of Wave Country's shipping business, it wasn't likely he'd stop at just thugs and bandits. She held her silence however; she needed more information before she could act one way or the other.

The sun was beginning to make its way towards the western horizon when the small traveling party came upon a puddle in the middle of the road. With Kurenai's considerable experience with genjutsu of various types it was a trivial matter for her to spot the telltale signs of the two shinobi hiding within the puddle. She couldn't see any village markings, but their camouflage consisted of a genjutsu overlaid on top of a ninjutsu water-merging technique and gave her a pretty good idea of their village of origin. The fact that they had chosen to hide as a puddle when it hadn't rained for days was almost an insult to her detail-oriented genjutsu sensibilities.

She quickened up her pace to catch up with Sakura, who had taken over the point position half an hour before. Tapping the pink-haired girl on the shoulder, the red-eyed Jounin discreetly set up a genjutsu of her own while motioning for Sakura to lead the group towards the side of the road. Kurenai didn't know how well the two hidden shinobi could see or hear under their camouflage, so to be safe she cloaked the group in an illusion of them taking a rest break, complete with snacks and drinks being brought out and loud chatter about the latest in gossip amongst Konoha citizenry. Once her genjutsu was in place she moved to join Tazuna and her team.

"The puddle in the middle of the road is a combination genjutsu and ninjutsu concealment technique, there are two shinobi hidden in there, probably from Kiri," Kurenai said in answer to their questioning looks as she pointed down the road.

"How can you tell sensei?" Sakura asked with her eyes locked on the puddle, cocking her head left and right trying to spot something out of the ordinary.

"Well, one of the ways you can pick out a genjutsu is the telltale blurring around the edge of the illusion. Genjutsu users get better at hiding that with experience; I'd say this is Chunin level work. If you have a particularly good sense for chakra flow you can also spot the slight ripples in your own chakra pathways that indicate you're under a genjutsu.

"Or," Kurenai continued, "you can notice that there's a puddle of water in the road despite the fact that it hasn't rained for a week in this area. It's easy to overlook little things like that, but details are the essence of genjutsu."

"Konoha does not have good relations with Kiri, the possibility exists that we're facing hostile ninja." Shino pointed out.

"We're definitely facing hostile ninja," Kurenai replied. "There's no good reason for Kiri shinobi to be this deep in Konoha territory and camouflaged. The only question is whether they're missing-nin or Kiri-nin acting under orders."

"What if we throw a bunch of explosive tags into the puddle, would that hurt them?" Naruto asked with a gleam in his eye.

"I'd like to capture them alive if possible, they may have useful information." Kurenai countered. She didn't mention her suspicions about Tazuna.

"Hmmm, how about these then? Something I've been working on." Naruto suggested, digging into his pack and fishing out a pair of explosive tags.

Kurenai examined the tags, noting the additions to the containing matrix pattern around the central exploding node. Though one did not get to Jounin level without some familiarity with all aspects of shinobi skills, fuinjutsu was one of her weaker subjects. The only thing she could discern was that the additions were supposed to limit the explosion in some way.

"It's meant for distractions," Naruto explained, "the symbols on the edge are supposed to drain away the main explosive chakra so there's no actual explosion, just the sound and light flare. If you're close when it detonates it'll leave you disoriented for awhile."

Kurenai nodded in understanding. It wasn't a bad idea, though it wasn't useful against more experienced shinobi as it did everything an exploding tag did, just less of it. Confined as the two unknown shinobi were in their genjutsu concealment though, it would do the trick. She attached the two tags to a kunai, sent a small burst of chakra across her fingertips to trigger them, and then flipped the kunai at the puddle. It traveled in a lazy arc, turning over once before falling into the middle of the puddle and embedding its tip into the dirt road.

A dark shape rose out of the puddle; it was the two ninja trying to escape from the tags. They simply weren't fast enough however, by the time they had finished un-melding themselves from the water the tag detonated with a blinding flash of light and a deafening thunderclap. Kurenai was on the move immediately, having taken steps beforehand to protect herself from the effects of the tag. With the two ninja disoriented from the effects of the tags Kurenai subdued them with ease, knocking them unconscious with a series of precise pressure point strikes.

As she thought, they were Kiri-nin. The symbol on their hitai-ate gave them away, although their Kiri-style breathing masks were pretty indicative as well. They wore gray cloaks over brown camouflage pattern uniforms, with horned headgear that, combined with their breathing masks, gave them the appearance of demons. The most distinctive thing about the pair however was their choice of weaponry, an oversized gauntlet that began at the elbow and ended in a set of sharp claws extending beyond the fingers, coated in what Kurenai guessed was some sort of poison. The one with a single horn on his headgear wore it on his right arm, while the two-horned one had it on his left, and the pair's gauntlets were connected to each other with a vicious-looking chain, each link extended to the sides with sharp cutting edges. If she remembered her Kiri-nin profiles correctly, these two would be the Demon Brothers Gouzu and Meizu, Chunin twin brothers who specialized in two-man attack tactics.

Kurenai broke the chain apart with chakra-enhanced strength, and then checked the two Kiri-nin's pulses to make sure they were really unconscious and not faking. Once she was sure that the immediate threat was neutralized she motioned for her team to approach and issued orders.

"Shino, use your kikaichu to establish a perimeter and let me know if they spot any potential hostile forces. Naruto, Sakura, guard the one with the single horn and hit him with everything you have if he shows any sign of waking."

Kurenai then dragged other one a small distance into the forest, far enough that she wasn't visible from the road but still near enough to respond instantly should her team need help. She proceeded to quickly strip him of all his equipment before producing some wire from her pack and tying him to a tree. Once her prisoner was secured she did the same with the other Kiri-nin, Tazuna and her students following her into the forest as she did so.

"Now, it's time for some answers."

* * *

After first interrogating the Demon Brothers and then Tazuna, Kurenai finally had a complete picture of the mission background. She wasn't happy with what she had learned. Tazuna had lied to the mission board, saying that all the mission would entail was protection from bandits and thugs. If he had revealed the full extent of Gatou's threats against him this would have been an automatic B-rank or higher mission. A C-rank was all the impoverished Wave Country could afford however, thus the need for deception.

She was annoyed with Tazuna's deliberate misleading of the mission board, but it didn't entirely come as a surprise. Under-ranked missions happened with enough frequency that experienced shinobi started to look for the signs in every mission they undertook. In this case the failure was really on the part of Konoha's intelligence analysis corps, as subtle hints had been evident to Kurenai just by listening to Tazuna talking about Wave Country. Still, outside of Konoha's protective walls and with unknown hostile forces potentially nearby, this wasn't the best time to start pointing fingers.

Kurenai turned to her team and laid out the facts for them, deciding to let them choose whether to continue the mission or not. Despite the elevated risk level, odds were they would still be able to complete the mission. She could deal with any further Chunin or less experienced Jounin opposition Gatou decided to hire without risking her team's safety. In the highly unlikely event however that Gatou had managed to hire one of the very few elite Jounin level missing-nin who played the role of mercenary…

Well, that was a different matter. But that was also a remote possibility.

Somewhat surprisingly Sakura was the first to decide. She argued that they had to continue because they represented Wave Country's only chance, that it was the right and moral thing to do. Shino also concurred, suggesting that this would be a good opportunity to test their abilities as a team in a realistic environment. Naruto did not contribute an opinion of his own, but nodded in acceptance of the majority's decision.

"Very well then," Kurenai declared once her students had made up their minds, "Tazuna-san, you still have a team of bodyguards, though you're going to have to work something out with the Hokage's office about the difference in mission level payment. We'll camp here for the night and guard our prisoners; we can continue tomorrow and be at our destination before nightfall."

Kurenai then set her team to making camp while she returned to the road. Following the road a small distance back, she then pulled out a kunai and made a series of deliberate markings on several of the trees by the roadside. To non-shinobi the markings would just look like random scratches or graffiti left over by travelers. Any Konoha however shinobi would recognize them together as a standard improvised sign. This section of road was regularly patrolled; it was just a matter of time before someone came to pick the Demon Brothers up.

* * *

The night passed uneventfully, and an ANBU prisoner retrieval squad arrived in the morning to pick up the Demon Brothers just as Team Eight was breaking camp. A short boat ride to Wave Country and a few hours of walking later, the members of Team Eight plus Tazuna found themselves standing before a small lake nestled in Wave Country's forested countryside. The road that led to their destination, Wave Country's largest town, hugged the lakeshore for a small distance before turning away into another section of forest. With the trees in the background and the way it was lit by the afternoon sun, the small lake looked like something out of a particularly vivid landscape portrait.

Kurenai felt it first, an intuitive twinge, before her senses detected anything. Though she couldn't detect any threat she was instantly on guard. Her instincts had been wrong before, but no shinobi survived for long without paying attention to their instincts.

Then she heard the whirring sound behind her.

"Get down!" Kurenai screamed as she threw herself over Tazuna. Beside her Naruto dropped himself flat on the ground, while Shino pulled a surprised-looking Sakura down with him.

She felt the wind rustle her hair as a large metallic object flew over the group. With a thunk the object embedded itself high in a nearby tree. It was an enormous sword, longer than she was tall and with a hilt that was as long as a standard ninja-to. The overly-wide blade was designed for powerful cleaving attacks rather than quick agile techniques, and it had a circular hole near the end and a half-circle notch near the handle.

Kurenai jumped to her feet with kunai in hand as the sword's owner dropped out of the tree it was embedded in to stand on its hilt. As tall as his sword, his bare chest displayed his imposing physique. He was decked out in striped gray pants with arm and leg warmers in wavy brown and white patterns. His face was covered in a tight wrapping of bandages, leaving only his brow-less forehead and harsh gray eyes visible. Kurenai cursed under her breath when she recognized who it was; this was exactly the remote possibility she was hoping wouldn't happen.

"Those eyes, the clothes," the swordsman growled, "Crimson Eyes Kurenai, Konoha's genjutsu mistress."

"Momochi Zabuza of the Seven Swordsmen, Demon of the Hidden Mist." Kurenai replied, stepping to the front of the group while waving Tazuna and her students back.

"I see my reputation precedes me."

Zabuza casually stepped off the blade and landed on the ground, pulling his sword down with him, before continuing, "I'm here for the old man's head. You can leave, or you can die with him."

Kurenai knew she was in a bad situation. If Zabuza's bingo book entry was accurate she guessed that she was an even match with him, all things considered. Her specialty was genjutsu and indirect combat though; she would be most effective fighting him from range under the cloak of illusions. If Zabuza wanted to press a direct confrontation, she would have no choice but to engage him in taijutsu to draw his attention. Against an obvious specialist like Zabuza she was at a severe disadvantage. However, being a shinobi meant that sometimes you had to fight even if the odds were against you.

"I'm afraid not. Tazuna is Konoha's client and we will protect him from any harm."

"Well then, I guess we can play a bit before I get paid." Zabuza replied with a smirk in his tone as he lifted his massive sword.

In the blink of an eye Zabuza had covered the distance between them, sword slicing horizontally from her left aimed at her midsection. Kurenai reacted instantly by moving forward and to the right. Her left hand pressed down on his left forearm, redirecting the angle of the slice into the ground. Simultaneously she slashed the point of her kunai across his throat with her right hand. Zabuza twisted his body backwards and to his right, letting the kunai passing in front of him harmlessly. He then reversed his grip on the sword and pushed forward on the hilt to slam it into Kurenai's left upper arm.

Kurenai allowed the force of the impact to knock her over, flinging her kunai at him while rolling away and landing in a crouch with hands together flying through seals. Zabuza leaned to one side to dodge the kunai while pulling his sword out of the ground, then chased her with a series of thrusting attacks. Kurenai was forced to break off her attempt to create a genjutsu. Instead she drew another kunai and met each thrust with a parry and a step in retreat. After the third parried thrust Zabuza lifted the blade of the sword up vertically, tilting it back over his right shoulder before stepping in deeply and aiming a high horizontal slash at the left side of her head. Kurenai ducked under the slash and lunged forward, intent on putting a kunai into his abdomen.

She realized her mistake as soon as she moved. The thrusts had forced her back to the edge of the forest. The subsequent swing was intentionally high to lure her into this position. Zabuza's sword, instead of clearing a full arc, lodged itself into the trunk of a tree that was just behind where Kurenai had been a moment ago. Freed from having to control the massive sword on its backswing, Zabuza dropped his right hand to parry away her kunai while thrusting his left at her face in a punch. Kurenai brought her rear hand up to push the punch away from her face, but with both her arms tied up Zabuza's follow-up right round kick caught her in the abdomen, lifting her off her feet and sending her flying into the lake.

Kurenai struggled her way to the surface as quickly as she could, trying to get out of an environment which would give Zabuza an overwhelming advantage. But the water felt heavy and sluggish, like she was moving through syrup. She looked up to see that Zabuza had already made his way next to her with his left hand extended in her direction. The space between them shimmered with an odd hue, as if between them was a wall of… water?

"Suirou no Jutsu," Zabuza remarked smugly. "A prison of water, controlled by my chakra. As long as I maintain contact with my hand, you cannot escape. Now, let's see how your little students react."

* * *

Naruto knew things would turn out badly as soon as Kurenai fell into the lake. His extracurricular reading had taught him that each hidden village had a preferred base element, with Kiri-nin specializing in water-based jutsu. Now his Jounin instructor was trapped in a water prison. Still, it was a stalemate situation; from what Zabuza said he couldn't move away or the prison would be broken.

Then Zabuza brought his free hand up in a one-handed tiger seal.

"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"

A blob of water pulled itself up from the surface of the lake, shifting into a humanoid shape as it rose higher. As it brought one watery leg forward to step on the shoreline the blob's translucent blue took on hues of different colors. With its second step on land, the water clone had solidified into an exact likeness of the Kiri swordsman.

Naruto grimaced, dropping his weight into a battle-ready crouch. He didn't have any illusions about being able to defeat Zabuza in close combat; he wasn't close to his sensei's level and the guy had just beaten her. He didn't know how strong a water clone was in relation to the original, but even if he and his team managed to beat it they would just be back to the stalemate situation, at least until Zabuza created another water clone.

Naruto didn't see any option but to fight. Running would just mean being cut down by the water clone. And if they managed to get beyond the limit of a water clone's distance from the original, Zabuza would simply finish his fight with Kurenai and then come after them. Fighting would at least prevent the inevitable.

Then he felt the tapping against the back of his neck, just below the collar. It was one of Shino's messenger bugs tapping out a message using the standard academy dot and dash code. Sakura had steadfastly refused to allow Shino to place any of his bugs on her, but Naruto hadn't minded. He thought the ability to transmit messages through bugs was useful, and had practiced with Shino until he could decode the messages as quickly as they were tapped out.

The bug user had come up with some sort of plan, but needed Naruto to improvise some way to draw attention and buy time so he could set up. Well, if Shino needed a distraction Naruto could certainly provide one. He hadn't pulled pranks in two years, but there was a reason Naruto was once the terror of Konoha. At least to the Chunin assigned to deal with his pranking, anyway.

"Sakura, get Tazuna-san out of here. Run as far as you can, we'll catch up with you."

Naruto turned to see that his words hadn't registered with the pink-haired girl. She was staring at the scene before her, wide-eyed and mouth agape in an expression that was equal parts fear and surprise. He reached over and backhanded her across the face.

"Sakura, get it together! Get Tazuna-san out of here now!"

Sakura turned to him, shocked out of her stupor by the impact on her cheek. She slowly blinked twice before his words finally registered in her mind. With a nod she grabbed Tazuna's hand, shook the equally stunned bridge builder back to his senses, and led down the road towards town as fast as she could.

Naruto wasn't proud of what he'd just done, but it was necessary. Having Sakura and Tazuna-san around just presented the Kiri-nin with additional targets, potentially complicating Shino's already iffy plan. He made a mental note to apologize to Sakura later. If he survived.

Both the real Zabuza and the water clone stood silently, watching the drama unfold with amusement in their eyes. As far as Naruto was concerned that was a good thing. The Kiri-nin wasn't taking him or his teammates seriously, and that was something Naruto could work with. He needed every advantage he could get at the moment.

Naruto shrugged his traveling pack off, letting it drop to the ground heavily behind him. He then put his left foot forward and turned his entire body sideways to Zabuza's water clone. His right hand came up in a wide circle to his shoulder to draw his sword out of its rigging in a deliberately exaggerated manner. Once the katana was fully drawn the arm swung in a wide circle again, forward, down, back, and finally ending with it extended straight overhead, sword pointed forward with blade parallel to the ground.

Moving his left hand to the exposed part of the shinobue and gripping it backhanded, he pulled it up out of its rigging with the same exaggerated motion. Once it was fully drawn out he flipped it upwards to hold it in a proper sword grip, careful to hide the finger holes from Zabuza's view the entire time. Acting as if the shinobue were an off-hand short weapon, he positioned it crosswise in front of him, with left arm fully extended and slightly tilted so that the tip of the shinobue was angled downwards.

Naruto hoped that Zabuza was fooled by his actions. Each of his weapons individually was positioned in more or less the exact way as to be the least practical in combat. The deliberately exaggerated drawing and posing motions were meant to give an impression of someone making up for lack of skill with theatrics.

Finally there was also the two-sword posture. Naruto had never practiced using two swords together, but knew from his reading that his current posture was also terribly impractical for that style of fighting. Furthermore fighting with two swords was fundamentally different from fighting with one, needing an entirely new set of instincts due to differences in range and rhythm from having two weapons to work with. The sword theory scrolls that Jiji had given him said that being competent with two swords was far more difficult than with one; and that the only people who used two swords in real combat against highly skilled opponents were accomplished kenjutsu masters.

Or idiots pretending to be masters.

The real Zabuza laughed; a deep rumbling belly laugh that was unnerving for its gravel-voice quality.

"It seems we have another swordsman here. Tell me kid, does your sword have a name?"

Naruto pondered how to answer the question. A negative response would add nothing of value, but a positive response with some sort of embellished flowery name might reinforce the idea that he was pretending to be more skilled than he really was. The trouble was he couldn't think of an appropriately impressive name for a wooden sword he'd carved three weeks ago.

Then it came to him, floating up from the depths of his consciousness as if from a dream.

"Tensa Kyokotsu."

Zabuza gave an appreciative chuckle. "Heavenly chains, crazy bones huh. That's a nice name for a sword kid. Let me introduce you to mine. It's called Kubikiri Houchou, Decapitating Carving Sword."

With that the water clone lifted his copy of Zabuza's sword and swung it about, as if to emphasize the point.

"So, kid, let's see how you match up against one of the Seven Swordsmen of Mist," Zabuza continued in a taunting tone, "I'll even go easy on you."

Naruto snarled in return, more to maintain the act than anything else. He approached the water clone in slow measured steps, keeping his eye steady and trying to project more confidence than he felt. A few paces away he paused briefly before lunging forward with a thrust of the shinobue followed by a quick swipe of the katana. His strikes fell short, and he darted back out of the water clone's range just as the huge blade hurtled through where he had been standing a second ago.

Naruto repeated the pattern several more times, deliberately attacking from out of range so he would be able to escape from the water clone's much longer sword when the counterattack came. He could tell that Zabuza, or the water clone at least, was more amused than anything else. Its attacks were much slower than the real Zabuza's when fighting Kurenai, and between exchanges its posture deliberately left open angles of attack for the younger swordsman. Naruto came to the realization that the water clone was playing with him.

Another tap against the base of his neck alerted him that Shino was ready. Naruto pushed forward again with a series of stepping thrusts, moving closer to the water clone than his previous attacks. This time, instead of moving back out of range of the counterstroke aimed at his left side, he threw himself to the right and rolled away from the clone's attack. He broke out of his roll into a crouch as Shino whipped several explosive tagged kunai out of his pockets and hurled them over Naruto's head.

* * *

Beneath the bandages covering his face, Zabuza frowned at the scene unfolding before him. The blond kid with the sword was fun to play with, but Zabuza had decided that it was about time to bring things to an end. Then the other kid, the one with sunglasses who had not moved at all since the beginning of the fight, threw six explosive tagged shuriken that landed at the edge of the shoreline. Zabuza wasn't naïve enough to believe the throw had been that badly aimed; the sunglasses kid was obviously trying to create a smokescreen with the explosions. Did they think that his water clone would be easier to defeat if he couldn't see the fight?

A whirring sound brought his attention to the smokescreen before him. Zabuza focused on the direction the sound was coming from and saw the blond kid's sword spinning out of the cloud, flying directly at his chest. With a disappointed sigh he lazily reached out and caught the wooden weapon with his free hand. If using the smokescreen to throw a sword at him was the best idea they could come up with, then those kids really weren't worth his time.

It was then that he saw a second spinning shape flying towards him. Zabuza recognized it as the stick the blond kid had been holding in his left hand, deliberately thrown under the shadow of the katana so that its presence would be hidden. His estimation of the kids rose slightly. This was almost a decent idea, tying up his free hand with a distraction before throwing something else at him. But there was one fatal flaw in the plan.

Zabuza brought his hand down hard, smashing the captured sword in his hand against the second projectile. He struck with such force that the stick disintegrated into a shower of splinters while he heard and felt the wooden sword in his hand crack from the impact.

Zabuza didn't have time to do anything more as a third much larger projectile hurtled out of the smoke cloud towards him, this time from a higher angle in a downward arc. It was the blond kid himself, Zabuza realized, jumping at him with kunai in hand. Zabuza smiled. The kid certainly could layer his plan, and against someone of lesser rank it may have worked. But here and now it wasn't enough.

The elite swordsman swung his free arm outwards in a wide arc, backhanding the blond viciously in the chest and sending him flying into the forest by the lake. No sooner had Zabuza heard the satisfying sound of the kid's body crunching against a tree trunk that his world was consumed in a cloud of writhing blackness.

It didn't take long for him to realize what was going on, especially when he felt his chakra being drained. The taller kid must be an Aburame; Zabuza knew of the Konoha bug-using clan by reputation. He threw the blond's wooden sword aside and brought his free hand up into a seal, with the intent of temporarily encasing himself in a globe of chakra-infused water. It was a low level defensive jutsu meant to stop projectile attacks, but it would also serve to kill the mass of bugs that were on his body.

* * *

With his attention focused on getting rid of Shino's bugs, Zabuza didn't notice the kunai that had been thrown at him, aimed slightly above the arm maintaining the water prison. As Team Eight's support fighter, Shino had replaced himself with a bug clone while Zabuza fought with Kurenai. Then Naruto's distraction gave him the time he needed to stealthily move into position. Now he was hidden in the forest close to the water prison and at an angle where he could initiate the final part of his hastily put together plan.

Shino let the kunai fly over and past Zabuza's arm before pulling taut on the thin shinobi wire attached to it. The kunai abruptly changed paths, spinning vertically around Zabuza's arm several times and wrapping the wire around it. Shino gave the wire a hard tug, pulling Zabuza's hand out of the water prison before the mist swordsman realized what was happening.

Kurenai was aware of her Genin students' plans. Trapped in the water prison she had seen that the Shino on the road was actually a bug clone, had interpreted Naruto's exaggerated motions correctly, and had discreetly found the real Shino in the forest using only her peripheral vision while Zabuza was absorbed in watching Naruto fight his clone. The moment Shino pulled Zabuza's arm and the water prison dropped away around her Kurenai performed a Kawarimi, putting a log in her place while disappearing into the forest using the lowest signature jutsu possible so Zabuza could not easily track her. From this position she was at a decided advantage over the mist swordsman. She just needed to use it effectively before he found and killed one of her students. With a tactical approach forming in her mind, Kurenai moved deeper into the forest to catch up with the retreating form of her tallest student.

* * *

Naruto pushed himself off the ground, wincing at the pain in his ribs while doing his best to suppress a groan. Putting himself in a seated position with his back against a tree, he gave the ribs on his left side a tentative prod. The poke resulted in his vision blurring as pain exploded from his ribs. Gritting his teeth against the slowly receding waves of pain, he ran his hand against his left side as gently as he could, feeling for bumps. He was relieved to find none; that meant at worst his ribs were cracked and not broken.

He felt tapping against the back of his neck again; one of Shino's messenger bugs had managed to find him. This time it was a relayed order from his sensei. If he was still able, she wanted him to distract Zabuza with explosives while moving deeper into the forest.

Naruto struggled to his feet. He wasn't out of action yet, and his team needed him. This was the role his sensei had singled him out for, something only he could do for the team, and as long as he was physically able to he was determined to fulfill that role. Pulling a pair of kunai out of his pockets, he triggered their explosive tags and threw them at Zabuza. He then ran deeper into the forest, doing his best to push aside the pain throbbing from his ribs with every step, throwing kunai behind him every few seconds.

Due to his unnaturally large chakra reserves allowing him to mass produce explosive tags, Naruto had gotten into the habit of tagging everything he carried that could conceivably be thrown. Because of that it was a simple matter of reaching into his pockets for the next kunai or shuriken and triggering them during the throwing motion. When he ran out of prepared weapons, his canteen, ration bars, and other traveling equipment went next. After even those were gone he resorted to wadding up explosive tags and tossing them behind him. He never looked back and never stopped running; he could hear Zabuza gaining on him, and knew that in his condition letting the mist swordsman get close enough meant death.

* * *

Zabuza was irritated. He had killed the chakra-draining bugs on him only to find two explosive tagged kunai being thrown at him. It was the blond kid again, running around the edge of the lake and throwing tagged weaponry every few seconds like some mad bomber. The kid's aim was terrible, and Zabuza was far too good of a shinobi for explosive tags to be a real threat, no matter how many there were. That didn't mean that being in a world of chaotic nonstop explosions wasn't annoying though.

Zabuza chased after the blond, determined to put an end to the kid once and for all. He was careful to keep himself on the lake though; Kurenai was still out there somewhere and he wanted to fight her where he would have the advantage. After a short chase, darting to the side every so often to get out of a tag's blast radius, he was finally close enough. Zabuza brought both hands together, running through the seals for one of his most potent water jutsu. He was going to drown the kid and break his body with a torrent of rushing water.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!"

Nothing happened. Zabuza's eyes narrowed; had he botched the jutsu? A moment later, the eyebrow-less skin above his eyes lifted in surprise as a column of water grew out of the lake behind him, liquid tendrils grasping at his arms and legs and holding him in place.

* * *

Kurenai smirked. In his haste to chase after Naruto the Mist swordsman had not noticed the genjutsu she put him under. It was meant to make him think he was still on the lake when in fact he had chased Naruto quite a way into the forest. She had closed the distance between them while Zabuza was distracted with the genjutsu and Naruto's explosive tags. When Zabuza's jutsu failed because he was too far away from water, Kurenai had taken the opportunity to attack.

Magen: Jubaku Satsu was the first original genjutsu technique she had developed, and the one she had refined the most of all her illusions. Many of her peers who were less versed in the art of genjutsu were under the impression that the technique projected the illusion of a tree binding her victim before she emerged from it to slash their throat. In fact, in its current form the visual details of the illusion were drawn from the victim's own mind, using whatever image was most fitting for the situation. That was why, when used properly, it was Kurenai's most effective genjutsu. If she simply projected the illusion of a tree regardless of the battlefield then it would be easy for her target to spot the illusion in anything but a woodland background. The name of the technique came from its first tree-specific incarnation, before she had expanded it for use in all environments.

She had Zabuza trapped in her illusion, kunai in right hand ready to end the swordsman's life, when she saw a metallic flash out of the corner of her eye. Kurenai threw herself away from him to evade a pair of senbon flying through the space her elbow had occupied moments before. They impaled themselves in Zabuza's neck with a dull thud and a small spurt of blood. The mist swordsman's eyes rolled back in his head, and his body fell to the ground in a disorganized heap.

Kurenai whirled in a defensive crouch with kunai in hand to face the newcomer.

"Thank you. I've been tracking Momochi Zabuza for some time, but haven't had a chance kill him. Your battle with the missing-nin gave me the opportunity I needed."

Kurenai did not reply, studying the newcomer carefully instead. The figure, obviously a ninja by the body posture and about as tall as Shino, was standing on the tallest branch of a large tree. Its face was covered by a ceramic mask, with narrow eye slits, a red swirl adorning the lower portion, and the Kiri symbol of four wavy diagonal lines etched on the forehead. Its body was covered by a hakama and bulky long-sleeved top in dull earthy tones, covered by an equally nondescript robe with muted yellow trim. The uniform of a Kiri hunter-nin.

"You're a Kiri hunter-nin then? Your mission was to terminate Zabuza?" Kurenai finally asked.

"Yes, to both questions," the hunter-nin replied. "I'm sorry the missing-nin had to trouble you on your journey, and I'm grateful for the assistance you've rendered me. May I come take the body for disposal?"

Keeping her eyes on the hunter-nin the entire time, Kurenai carefully reached down and felt Zabuza's neck.

No pulse.

She briefly considered the situation before moving back a few paces to indicate her affirmative response, though she kept herself in a defensive posture. The hunter-nin gave her a slight bow before disappearing in a swirl of leaves and reappearing next to Zabuza's body. Having maneuvered Zabuza so that the hunter-nin's shoulders supported the much larger mist swordsman's body, both then disappeared in a swirl of leaves with the hunter-nin's Shunshin.

Kurenai kept her defensive posture for a few seconds until she was sure that the hunter-nin had truly departed with Zabuza's body. Then she turned and headed deeper into the forest to find her two wayward students.

* * *

She found them both in a small clearing a short distance from where Zabuza had fallen. Naruto was sitting on the ground, shirtless and grimacing in pain. Shino was behind him, in the process of wrapping several layers of bandaging tightly around the blond's chest.

The bug-user looked up as their sensei entered the clearing. "We assumed that the fight had concluded, with the absence of battle noise and the fading sensation of killing intent."

Kurenai nodded. "How badly are you two hurt?"

"Naruto suffered cracked ribs," Shino replied, "I'm doing my best to reinforce them with bandages. I'm unharmed, but the majority of my colony was destroyed by Zabuza's water jutsu. It'll take me several days to breed them back to restore my full combat capabilities."

Finished with the bandaging, Shino helped Naruto to his feet before handing the blond his shirt. Kurenai fished a blue pill out from one of her hidden pockets and offered it to Naruto once he had put his shirt back on.

"Analgesic. It'll help with the pain."

Naruto took the pill and popped it in his mouth, then accepted the canteen Shino handed him with a grateful nod and washed the painkiller down with a swallow of water.

"What happened with Zabuza?" Naruto asked weakly as he handed the canteen back to Shino.

"A Kiri hunter-nin got him, though…" Kurenai trailed off, replaying the scene in her mind.

"Sensei?"

"I'll tell you two the details later, for now let's get organized and catch up with Sakura and Tazuna-san."

Kurenai led Naruto and Shino out of the forest and back on the main road. Without a word Shino moved ahead to retrieve Naruto's pack as well as his own, shouldering both before leading the way to the rest of their group by the female scent bug he'd planted on Tazuna. He was careful to move at a slower speed than normal, allowing the injured Naruto to keep pace.

* * *

"… so that's what happened at the lake. I have my doubts about it though. There's a possibility that Zabuza could still be alive and, if he is, we're going to be facing him again soon."

It had taken Kurenai and her two students, walking at a slower than normal pace, the better part of an hour to catch up with Sakura and Tazuna. Once reunited the group had made its way to Tazuna's house at the edge of town by nightfall. They were now gathered at Tazuna's table after dinner, along with Tazuna and his daughter Tsunami. The house had one more occupant, Tsunami's son Inari, but he had eaten dinner in silence and left for his room as soon as he was done.

"What do you mean sensei? Didn't you say that the hunter-nin killed Zabuza?" Sakura asked while tending to Naruto. After Kurenai's encouragement from the first D-rank mission, the pink-haired girl had taken it upon herself to start studying first aid practices beyond what was taught at the academy. She had cut apart Shino's roughly applied bandaging on Naruto's chest, and was now gently spreading bruise salve on the deep purplish patch of skin by his ribs with her fingertips.

"Normally, hunter-nin dispose of the body on the spot to keep the secrets of their village safe. There's less risk of hostile shinobi taking the body for study that way. This one didn't though. And senbon are an unusual choice of weaponry, as it's hard to kill with senbon given their thin profile. They're typically carried by medic-trained nin for their dual use purpose as weapons and acupuncture needles. It's probable that the hunter-nin actually put Zabuza into an involuntary coma with the senbon attack.

"I could be wrong. Zabuza could really be dead and I could be worrying over nothing. But if I'm not, we're looking at the possibility of facing an A-rank missing-nin in Zabuza, a partner of unknown skill in the hunter-nin, and possibly others."

"What should we do then?" Naruto asked, wincing as Sakura began wrapping fresh bandages tightly around his chest.

Kurenai gave the matter some thought before replying.

"This is what we'll do. I'll head into town tomorrow disguised as a passing traveler. I'll get a courier to relay a coded message back to Konoha asking for reinforcements, then spend some time in a bar listening in on gossip. We may be able to find out more of Gatou's plans that way, and possibly a clue on where Zabuza's camped out as well. Neither he nor the hunter-nin were carrying equipment for travel, so it's reasonable to assume they're hiding somewhere nearby. Tsunami-san, if you could ask around next time you head into town that would be helpful as well; a local can get information more easily than an unknown stranger."

Tazuna's daughter nodded in agreement. "I usually go into town twice a week for groceries. My next regular shopping day is the day after tomorrow."

"Great, I'll go with you on that day then," Kurenai decided. "Meanwhile Shino and Sakura will accompany Tazuna-san when he goes to work on the bridge. After four days gathering information I'll do the same as well. If Zabuza was put into a coma, chances are he'll have recovered by then. Naruto, you're still injured so you'll stay here to guard Tsunami-san and Inari during the day."

Seeing her students nod in understanding, Kurenai continued.

"Good. Shino, Sakura, when the two of you are at the bridge tomorrow you can get some practice in, just keep an eye out and don't get too tired. Naruto, you're not allowed to do any physical exercise until your ribs heal. If Zabuza shows up we may need you to fight even if you're injured, so get as much rest as you can. Now, everyone go and get some sleep. We have a couple of long days ahead of us."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

The dreaded Wave arc.

I had considered using an original mission to bring Zabuza and Haku into the storyline, but ultimately settled on recreating the Wave Country mission. I have several reasons. By following the course of events outlined in canon, it gives me a chance to show how this Naruto thinks and fights differently from canon Naruto.

Furthermore converting missing-nin who were hostiles into Konoha ninja, which seems to happen with the majority of Naruto/Haku pairings, requires a set of contrived circumstances. I'm hoping that by using the framework of a canon mission the contrivances will be easier to accept as believable. Now that I've written to the end of Wave arc and its immediate repercussions, I'm not really sure whether I've succeeded. Feedback would be welcome.

This is not a crossover fic. Naruto is not a Bleach shinigami and will not be gaining shikai or bankai. There's nothing special about his wooden sword, and if asked he'll probably give the same name to the next sword he carves. There is a meaning to the sword name Naruto came up with however; it didn't just pop out of thin air for him.

If you were wondering, Zabuza did not use his trademark Kirigakure no Jutsu because that would be giving Kurenai the upper hand. He does not actually possess a way to see through the mist. Instead he uses his other senses to guide him, and combined with an opponent who's unfamiliar with fighting in virtual blindness that gives him an advantage. Against a genjutsu specialist however taking away sight for both of them just means that she can ignore it and focus on his other senses. She might have no idea how to find him, but her genjutsu will be that much more focused against his hearing and smell (taste and touch not being particularly useful in this situation except at very close range). Combine that with the fact that most genjutsu users prefer range while he's a close combat fighter, and it simply doesn't make sense to use the jutsu.

It's been pointed out by several people that in chapter three Naruto took significantly longer to learn tree walking than canon. Kakashi basically dumped canon Team Seven in the forest and had them do nothing but tree walking until they were ready for Zabuza. In contrast, Kurenai would have had her students do tree walking along with other exercises plus D-rank missions each day. There isn't as compelling a need to master tree walking in the shortest possible time frame here.

I've also been asked why Naruto doesn't use Shino-like sunglasses or deeply tinted goggles to hide his eye. The former simply wouldn't work; Shino's eye is clearly visible from a side profile. The latter would work, but Naruto would need goggles deeply tinted enough that a great deal of light is reflected away. While he could adapt to operate with the low lighting, the goggles themselves represent a tremendous vulnerability. Tear away his hitai-ate and Naruto has to fight with one hand over his eye or one eye tightly closed. Tear away the goggles and Naruto will be essentially blinded for minutes as his eyes adjust to the new lighting level. Only Shino gets to do the dark eyewear thing. Because he's a badass like that.

There have also been comments about how other shinobi wouldn't be able to use Kage Bunshin training to the extent that canon Naruto does. True, but not my point. Konohamaru could use at least one while using a Rasengan in battle conditions. It would not be out of the question for talented Chu/Gen level ninja to be able to create one as well. Naruto may train with them in swarms, but the accumulated value of just one Kage Bunshin adding a small extra bit of training every day shouldn't be overlooked.

Wow, first three reviews all ask the same thing, so I figured I should amend the author's notes rather than wait until next week to address the issue. Unlike European weapons traditions, in Japan wooden swords have always been seen as a viable though less effective alternative to steel swords in real combat. There are many examples of historical Japanese swordsman who chose to use wooden swords for one reason or another. Miyamoto Musashi, in his famous duel against Sasaki Kojiro, used a wooden sword against the latter's Mono Hoshi Zao and won. Zabuza broke the sword not because of any particular deficiency in wooden swords, but because he's a strength monster who's used to swinging a blade that probably weighs more than Naruto one-handed. The other point is long blades made to combat specifications in the Japanese tradition are really expensive. Naruto would like to have a real sword, but he still needs to purchase other required ninja equipment and until very recently has been living on just a stipend. A battle-worthy steel sword was simply far out of financial reach.

**Glossary/Notes:**

Fuinjutsu: Art of sealing.

Hitai-ate: Forehead protector.

Kawarimi: Body Replacement.

Koto: A thirteen-stringed zither type instrument.

Magen: Jubaku Satsu: Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death.

Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu: Water Clone Technique.

Shinobue: One of several types of Japanese transverse flutes made from bamboo.

Shunshin: Body Flicker.

Suirou no Jutsu: Water Prison Technique.

Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu: Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique.

4/02/10: Author's notes amended

4/02/10: First Upload


	5. Even if You Give Me the Words I'm at a

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Five: Even if You Give Me the Words I'm at a Loss For

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

It was the morning of the second day after Team Eight's encounter with Zabuza and Naruto was bored out of his mind. His sensei had forbidden him from training, and without the excitement of being on the road on guard for enemies Naruto had, for the first time in years, found himself at a loss for what to do with his time.

The first day hadn't been too bad; after Kurenai and his teammates left for the day he had persuaded Tsunami that helping her around the house with light chores wouldn't strain his injury too much. Tazuna's daughter proved to be an amicable conversationalist as well, supplying him with details about Wave Country's history as they worked. When she went outside however Naruto had been left alone with her son. After a few abortive attempts at conversation with the sullen and uncommunicative Inari, he had given up and resorted to passing the rest of the day by reading the few books on fishing and architecture kept in Tazuna's place.

The second day was worse. Tsunami had left with Kurenai in the morning to buy groceries and gather information in town. She had taken Inari with her as well, leaving Naruto alone in the house for the day. After an hour attempting to read Tazuna's books, which the young ninja found to be immensely boring, Naruto had given up and left the house. His sensei had ordered him to avoid physical exercise, but he didn't think she would mind him going for a walk in the forest. He needed to find some wood to carve a replacement sword with anyway.

A few hours later, Naruto leaned back against a tree and looked at the unfinished sword in his hands. At this point it was little more than a vaguely sword-shaped stick, but he could do the finer carving and sanding over the next few days.

It hadn't taken him long to find a suitable fallen tree, located conveniently near a small clearing in the forest that he could work in. Finding a way to chop the tree to size and then do the required rough carving work without causing his ribs to protest painfully had proven to be more of a challenge though.

Deciding he'd strained his ribs enough for the day, the blond Genin decided to set the sword aside for later and work on his other project instead. It was a nearly completed shinobue, just missing the last two tone holes. He had packed it for the trip just in case he found time to work on it. With his last shinobue destroyed during the fight with Zabuza now was as good a time as any. Pulling out his thinnest carving knife, Naruto measured the distance and began carefully drilling the last two holes.

It didn't take long for him to finish, and Naruto looked in satisfaction at the delicate instrument in his hands. It was the eighth shinobue he had made since he took up the hobby, and his skill had steadily improved with each one. Once he returned to Konoha and lacquered it the instrument would look nearly as good as the ones he saw in stores.

He was about to test the instrument's tone when a light rustling of bushes alerted him to the presence of another person. He looked up to see a figure standing on the opposite of the clearing, a small wicker basket hung loosely from one arm.

"Did you make that yourself?"

Naruto was somewhat surprised he didn't notice his visitor until now; he didn't think he had been so engrossed in his work. The blond examined the other person for a few moments before answering. He saw a soft oval face with pale skin, large brown eyes and a gentle smile, framed by a head of straight charcoal-black hair that hung down to below the shoulder blades. Below that was a light sleeveless peach-colored robe, worn loosely on the body, decorated with simple but tasteful stylized swirl patterns. By the height difference and facial features, he judged that this person was a year or two older than himself.

"Yeah, I've been making them as a hobby. I think this one's finally come out right." Naruto finally answered.

"Will you play something?"

The voice was gentle like the face, but with a husky undertone. It was a distinctive voice, though not unpleasant to listen to. Naruto was left unsure though whether he was talking to a boy or a girl. He let part of his mind ponder the matter while he brought the shinobue up to his lips.

Naruto began with a few test notes, and was pleased to find that he had finally managed to produce a fully in-tune instrument this time. The blond then drew a deep breath and began playing the first half of a song he had been in the process of learning when the C-rank mission came up. It was a slow and contemplative tune, with occasional quick runs of notes and a few abrupt octave shifts that taxed the young blond's skills beyond the beginner level songs he had become familiar with.

When he had finished and brought the shinobue away from his lips, Naruto was a little embarrassed to notice how he had been watched during his performance. Naruto had never played in front of anyone else before, and the attention was an odd feeling to him.

"You're not bad with that. How long have you been playing?"

"A bit more than a year. I've been learning on my own from books mostly."

"To be at this level after a year without a formal teacher, it sounds like you have some talent with music then, um…"

"It's Naruto," the blond supplied. He didn't see any harm in giving his name out to someone who seemed to be a typical townsperson.

"It's nice to meet you Naruto-kun, my name's Haku."

Naruto looked at the person before him, trying to figure out the proper honorific to use. His eye followed the flow of the loose robes, noting how they hung straight down from the shoulders with the barest hint of curvature.

"Um, Haku… kun?"

Haku smiled at him in return. Evidently he had guessed the right gender.

"So Haku-kun, what are you doing out in the forest by yourself?"

"I'm gathering some herbs."

Naruto nodded. Tsunami had done the same thing yesterday. Apparently the town had been left without a doctor since the economic downturn, and some of the more knowledgeable villagers gathered medicinal herbs from the surrounding forest for extra money or their own use.

"What about you Naruto-kun, you're not from Wave Country."

Naruto briefly considered how Haku could know that, before his mind settled on the obvious answer.

"You mean because of my hitai-ate?"

Haku nodded at the blond Genin with a smile. "We don't see ninja around here often."

No matter how nice Haku seemed, Naruto knew from academy lessons that it wasn't a good idea to let even the most trivial details of a mission slip. He settled for answering Haku's question in a different way instead.

"I had some free time, so I came out here to get some air and finish making this." He punctuated his response by waving the shinobue around a bit.

"But you must be here to fight someone right? In Wave Country I mean, someone must have hired you," Haku pressed.

Naruto shrugged. "The purpose of a ninja's life is to fight."

"Is that why you fight? Because you're supposed to? That doesn't seem like a very good way to live." Haku sounded slightly disappointed.

"What else is there? Ninja are tools. We exist to complete the mission or die trying."

"What about your precious people?" Haku suggested.

"What about them?"

"Do you fight to protect your precious people?"

"All my precious people are ninja as well," Naruto replied, "I'll do whatever I can to protect them, but ultimately they're ready to lay down their lives for the sake of the mission as well."

Haku gave him a sad smile. "I think if I were a ninja, I wouldn't want to live like that. I would fight to protect my precious people's dreams."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked in a puzzled tone.

"Fighting because you have to, there's no meaning in that. It sounds like an empty life. But it's different if you fight to protect your precious people's dreams. As long as there's someone to continue it the dream can go on. Even when your time to fight is past, someone else will take it up and your existence will go on through the shared dream that everyone's fighting to protect. I think being part of something like that, something greater than a single person, gives life meaning."

What the blond had just heard was so foreign to everything he had been taught and understood about the life of a ninja that he had difficulty grasping it.

"Aren't you still a tool if you're just fighting for other people's dreams? What's the difference between fighting for a dream and fighting because you're told to?" Naruto asked.

Haku's head shook from side to side. "I would fight for my own dream as well. I want to settle in a peaceful place, free from trouble and conflict and suffering, and make lots of friends. Fighting for my dream, and for my precious person's dream, those would be my own choices to make, not someone else's orders."

Naruto looked at Haku for a few seconds in confusion, before answering with a weak shrug. He didn't really know how else to respond.

Seeing the expression on the blond's face Haku decided it was time to move on.

"I really should get going. It's starting to get late."

"Um, ok. It was… nice meeting you I guess," Naruto said uncertainly, his mind still going through what Haku had just said. He looked back down at the shinobue still in his hands, not watching as Haku walked towards the edge of the clearing.

"Oh by the way, I'm a girl."

Haku giggled at the way the blond's expression changed, staring at her with eyebrows raised and mouth open in surprise. With a light wave goodbye and a smile, she turned and disappeared into the forest.

* * *

On the evening of Team Eight's third full day staying in Tazuna's house, Inari finally snapped.

"Why are you still here? There's no way you can beat someone like Gatou! You're just sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!"

Kurenai looked up from a small desk in the corner of the room where she had been preoccupied jotting down notes on her intelligence gathering so far. Shino and Sakura were seated at the dinner table with Inari; Shino looking as unperturbed as ever while Sakura's facial expression showed how startled she was by Inari's outburst. Naruto was by himself in a far corner, shaving off small bits of wood from his new sword onto some newspapers spread on the ground.

Kurenai had expected this outburst for some time after seeing the boy's behavior around herself and her students. When she had asked about it Tsunami told her about Kaiza; how Inari had looked up to the traveling fisherman as a hero, and how badly the boy had been affected when Gatou's thugs killed him. Kurenai could understand how the boy felt, and in some ways even sympathize with it.

"Shut up kid, no one cares what you think."

Naruto's reply, delivered in a cold tone with the blond not looking up from his carving work, momentarily startled Inari. Having grown up as the grandson of one of the town's most important people, he was used to those older than him respecting or at least humoring him. Naruto's casual dismissal was not something Inari was prepared to deal with.

Sakura began to rise out of her seat, intent on admonishing Naruto, but was stopped when Kurenai moved to put a hand on the pink-haired girl's shoulder. The Jounin had an idea of what Naruto was thinking. Though she didn't approve of the blond's initial response, letting events play out to the end might be the best option at this point.

It did not take Inari long to shake himself from the effect of Naruto's initial response. "You shut up! You don't know anything about how strong Gatou is! The truly strong always beat the weak! So why don't you go home and leave us alone?"

This time Naruto did look up. "Just because you're too weak to beat him, you think everyone else is? You don't know anything about me or my team."

The two locked eyes, Inari's angry glare meeting Naruto's cold gaze.

"You're all talk, just because you're a ninja and a few years older than me! You don't even know anything about suffering!"

"And you think you do?" Naruto replied icily, "If you want to be the main actor of your own little personal tragedy so much then find somewhere to cry where you won't bother anyone. You're a pathetic waste of a life. Your dad would be ashamed of you."

Kurenai grimaced at Naruto's words. Either Tsunami had told him about Kaiza as well, or he had stumbled by luck on the exact worst words to use with Inari.

Naruto's words were too much for Inari to bear. Tazuna's grandson charged with an anguished cry, his fists raised high to strike at Naruto. The blond rose from the ground and responded with a speed that Inari's eyes couldn't keep up with, parrying away the punch while pulling Inari's arm across his body before twisting it up and folding it over the younger boy's shoulder. The movement locked the shoulder and sent the already unbalanced Inari falling backwards. Naruto used his grip on Inari to control the younger boy's fall, ensuring that he landed without anything more severe than a wounded ego. Even if he had been attacked first Naruto still didn't want to be responsible for injuring the client's grandson.

Naruto moved to stand over Inari, anger creeping up on his previously cold demeanor. "You won't fight for your country or the people close to you, but you'll fight because I insulted you? You'll fight because I hurt your pride?"

Inari was too shaken up to respond. He could only look at the angry blond standing over him with wide eyes.

"Who cares about your pride?" Naruto continued, the tone of his voice rising with his anger, "When you're gone no one will remember it, no one will remember you! Kaiza-san would be ashamed that you're willing to fight for something so worthless, but when it comes to your home and your people, all you can do is cry!"

Naruto turned abruptly, moving back to his corner to gather what he had been working on before stalking angrily out of the house.

Kurenai tapped her female student on the shoulder. When Sakura turned to her sensei with a questioning look, Kurenai pointed discreetly at Inari without saying anything. Sakura nodded and got up to talk to the boy, who hadn't moved and was staring dumbly at a spot between his legs. Kurenai then turned to leave the house herself to find her other student.

She found Naruto sitting against a tree in the backyard, his back turned away from Tazuna's house. She leaned against the same tree herself, standing to one side so she could look down at Naruto with her head turned, watching him as he resumed working on his sword. Kurenai gave him a few minutes to calm down before she spoke.

"You know Naruto, it might not have been the best idea to goad Inari on like that." Her admonishment was delivered in an even and gentle tone.

"I'm sorry sensei, I know I shouldn't have. It's just, the way he acts around us and the way he was talking tonight, it pissed me off."

"Can you tell me why?"

"Well," Naruto waved one hand in the air, "we're taught at the academy that a ninja's purpose is to finish the mission at all costs right? And he's saying that we should just go home and abandon the mission, like it doesn't mean anything."

"Inari is a civilian though, and not even old enough to be an academy student," Kurenai reminded Naruto.

"I know, but this is still his home. Shouldn't he be willing to fight for it?"

"People are different Naruto, not everyone is willing to fight. If they were, the world might not need ninja. We're the ones who get hired to fight for people who won't or can't."

"So… when the teachers at the academy taught us that ninja are tools, we're really just tools to be used by our employers to resolve problems they can't or won't resolve themselves?"

"That's one way of looking at it, though I wouldn't necessarily say the correct way."

"What do you mean sensei?"

"You have to keep in mind that, even with all the training from the academy, even though as a Genin you're technically an adult, you're still physically a child."

Kurenai patted Naruto on the head for effect, smiling when the blond grumbled.

"The academy's purpose is to teach you enough to make you effective shinobi in a short amount of time," she continued, "not necessarily the right or best answer in every case. I can tell you there are many ninja who have a different idea of what a shinobi's purpose is from what the academy teaches."

"But which one is the right one?"

"Sometimes, Naruto, there is no right answer to a problem. If you're unhappy with the answer that you've been given, you'll have to find one that works for you and stick to it. But that doesn't mean the other answers are any more right or wrong, just that your answer works for you."

Kurenai watched as Naruto silently returned to carving his sword. She could tell, by the way his hands were moving absently as they worked, that he was preoccupied with thinking about what she had just said. Deciding that it would be best to leave him alone with his thoughts, she ruffled his hair a bit before turning to head back into the house.

"Don't stay outside too long, you'll catch a cold."

* * *

On the evening of Team Eight's fourth full day staying with Tazuna, Kurenai returned from her information gathering in town with some disquieting news.

"I believe Zabuza's going to make his move in two days."

"How can you be sure sensei?" asked Sakura.

"Over the last couple days I've been scouting bars and other places where strangers who don't belong in town typically go. I identified a number of people who were likely to be Gatou's mercenaries, then today lured two of them aside and plied them with sake until I could get them talking.

"One of the things they told me was that Gatou was planning on meeting with Zabuza in his hideout today. They didn't know where it was, but they knew that Gatou wanted to push him into acting soon."

"But that doesn't tell us when Zabuza's attacking," Naruto pointed out.

"That's not all I got out of them. They also mentioned Gatou ordering two ex-samurai to attack this place two days from now."

"Then it would be logical for Gatou to press Zabuza to attack Tazuna-san at the bridge during the same time frame," Shino observed. "He would expect all of us to be defending Tazuna-san, so his men could freely come and kill Tsunami-san and Inari outright, or take them hostage for leverage against Tazuna-san."

"That's right," Kurenai confirmed, "and since I haven't heard word back from Konoha, we can't expect any reinforcements to be here in time to help us."

"Couldn't we keep Tazuna-san's entire family together that day, either at the bridge or here?" Naruto suggested.

"I've thought about that, and it might work. The problem is it would tip our hand and potentially cost us only advantage we have right now. I don't know enough about Gatou to predict his actions, but any decent shinobi who saw his target changing daily routines would immediately change their attack plans."

"So we're going to have to split up to protect all of them?" Sakura asked.

"Yes,I think that's the best option we have. Beginning tomorrow I'll start guarding Tazuna at the bridge as well, as we previously discussed. I'll do it from concealment so that no non-shinobi will notice a change in routine. When Zabuza comes he'll just assume that I've been hiding all the previous days."

Kurenai turned to her one-eyed student. "Naruto, how's your injury?"

"The bruising is starting to fade," the blond replied. "It still hurts when I move around, but I think I can fight through it."

"Good, because we're going to leave you here to guard Tsunami-san and Inari. With the advantage of surprise you should be able to take down two ex-samurai. Once you're done join us at the bridge as quickly as possible. If Zabuza brings his partner to fight we'll probably need you as well."

Naruto nodded at his sensei, keeping a carefully neutral expression on his face. The only thing that gave his emotions away was the tightness at the corners of his mouth.

"Shino, Sakura, you two will be guarding Tazuna-san when he's at the bridge, same as before. Lighten up on practice though; we can't risk injuries before the fight. If you haven't yet, you'll want to take some time to look over the bridge's layout. Look for places where you can conceal explosive tags for traps, make a mental note of the available cover, anything you can use to your advantage. When we have to fight Zabuza again familiarity with terrain is the one advantage we can be sure of, so we need to maximize it."

Shino and Sakura nodded at their sensei's suggestion, both mentally reviewing what they already knew about the bridge's design from a new perspective.

"Good. Now if there's nothing else, take some time to make sure all your fighting equipment is in order before you sleep tonight. Even though the fight's probably two days away I still want us to be as prepared as possible."

* * *

Waiting was the worst part of it. He knew what he would do once it started, but this interminable waiting was equal parts boredom, frustration, and anxiety.

Naruto checked the seal design on the explosive tag in his hand again. He had lost track of how many times he had done that since Kurenai and the rest of his team had left with Tazuna, but it was a way to pass another minute while waiting for Gatou's thugs to arrive. Made for the same purpose as the pair Kurenai had used on the Demon Brothers, this tag was the key part of his plan for what was to come. He was pretty sure that he could take two ex-samurai in open battle, but this was a fight he could not afford to lose. Not only did he have no backup, but the rest of his team was also counting on him to join the bridge fight once he was done here.

Naruto waited in the hallway adjacent to the main living area, hidden from view of the doorway by a short length of wall. From his position he could see Tsunami preparing ingredients for dinner. She was aware of the plan, and though she was making an effort at maintaining her normal morning routine, her motions were stiff and unnatural.

The loud banging against the door was the first sign of Tazuna's visitors, and Naruto sighed in relief that his wait was finally over. His body relaxed into a ready posture, releasing the tension that he didn't realize he had been building all morning. Over the last two days he had analyzed this fight in his mind so many times, from every possible angle and with every possible sequence of actions, that having to finally do it for real seemed anticlimactic.

The sound of a series of metallic sword slashes followed by wood splintering; the samurai had cut their way through the door. Naruto triggered the explosive tag in his hand, wadded it up into a ball, and tossed it into the house's main living area. Closing his eye tightly and clamping his hands against his ears, he waited until the detonation before moving.

Once the tag went off Naruto was out of his hiding spot in a blur of motion. As he had planned, the tag's detonation had stunned the two ex-samurai. He targeted the one on his right first, judging the man to be a greater threat because his katana was already drawn. A light parry from Naruto's wooden sword knocked aside the ex-samurai's katana, and then a thrust into the abdomen doubled the man over, finally Naruto pivoted into a spin on his front leg and stepped with the momentum into a diagonal downward strike on the back of the man's neck.

The other ex-samurai had recovered sufficiently to reach for the katana slung on his hip, only for Naruto to swing his wooden sword in a horizontal cut hard enough to shatter the wrist bones on the man's sword hand. A quick shuffle to the right and a follow-up diagonal upwards strike at the back of the jaw line brought the second ex-samurai down as well.

Naruto quickly bound the two unconscious men with wire before patting them down for hidden weapons and other items of interest. He found none, but pocketed the contents of their wallets. He figured he would need it more than they, and compared to what they were planning to do with Tsunami and Inari, his stealing their money put him firmly on the moral high ground.

Then he turned to examine their weapons. They were standard katana, and looked to be old but kept in decent care by their owners. Made for fully grown adult warriors, they were a bit longer than the wooden sword Naruto had carved for himself, and the balance was different as well. He briefly considered taking one with him, but decided that the slight differences between the way these blades and his wooden one handled would hurt more than help in a fight.

Naruto looked back to see Inari watching him from the foot of the stairs, an unreadable expression on the boy's face. The blond quickly made a decision. He really did feel badly about goading the younger boy into a physical confrontation, and this was an opportunity for him to apologize indirectly.

Sheathing the first man's sword, he took both weapons and laid them on the floor to one side. "These are yours now Inari. Learn to fight with them, sell them. Do whatever you want."

Without waiting for Inari's response Naruto was out the door and on his way to the bridge in a run. With his customary chakra-enhanced weights set aside for the day's activities, it wouldn't take him long at all to reach the rest of his team.

* * *

Kurenai moved in on Zabuza from his left, leaping into the air in the opening movement of a jump kick. The mist swordsman sensed her movement and swung Kubikiri Houchou in a high horizontal arc, intending to catch her mid-jump with the attack. He had misread her intention though. As she had not physically committed to the jump kick, she was able to lean her upper body completely back, putting it parallel to the ground and letting the tip of the sword slice harmlessly through the space where her upper body had been.

Twisting her body left as she dropped, Kurenai landed with her body perpendicular to the ground, supported by her extended left arm and her splayed out legs with the right behind Zabuza's leg. She then tucked her left leg in while kicking her right horizontally at the back of Zabuza's knee. Once again he sensed her attack and lifted his leg, allowing the kick to pass through without striking anything. She responded by throwing her hip to the left while switching supporting hands from left to right behind her. The hip movement redirected the momentum of her kick upwards, and when combined with leaning her upper body to her right and a body twist, spun her into a headstand position using her right arm as support.

The last time she had been in a headstand she had managed a grazing twist kick against Zabuza's head. This time, taking advantage of the mist swordsman's expectations, she spun until her body was facing him again before putting down her left arm while chambering her right leg and kicking it horizontally at his abdomen. Once again Zabuza was able to shift his body to mostly neutralize the attack, though she connected with enough that she was able to push her weight away from him, rolling out of her headstand and out of his range just before his massive sword slammed down into the bridge deck where she had been.

The two had repeated this pattern several times now. Using a combination of Bunshin and multilayered genjutsu to subtly distort his perception of the bridge, Kurenai was able to keep the Mist Swordsman from effectively approaching and attacking her. But he was also too good of a physical combatant for her to land anything solid against him when she tried. He was able to sense and block thrown weapons despite the genjutsu, and with taijutsu she was only able to get occasional glancing blows.

It was only due to her unorthodox style of taijutsu that she was able to score any hits at all. The idea had originated with her Jounin instructor, himself a genjutsu specialist, and had been further refined by Kurenai as a Chunin and Jounin. It was based on using acrobatic tumbling for deception and striking from unexpected angles. The unusual nature of the style gave its practitioner the edge against average fighters. Skilled close combat specialists however had the speed and experience to adjust and defend against attacks from odd angles, and could take advantage of the long setup time of many of the style's attacks to interrupt them before they even started.

When used in conjunction with subtly applied genjutsu however the style became much more effective. Illusions affecting an opponent's sensory perceptions could mask the practitioner's approach and attack setup, covering the style's weakness while reducing the amount of time the opponent had to respond to attacks. And though Zabuza was consistently able to maneuver to minimize the effect of any attacks that landed, it was still better than using an orthodox taijutsu style that the Mist swordsman could read and predict more easily.

Even so, it was a stalemate situation at best. She could land her attacks, but could not inflict enough damage to end the fight. On the other hand Zabuza had been unable to land any due to her Bunshin and genjutsu defenses. If he managed score a solid blow with his sword however, it would be decisive.

Her hands automatically raced through a series of seals, putting up more layers of genjutsu even as Zabuza dispelled some affecting him after cleaving through another Bunshin he thought was real. Kurenai had no idea how skilled Zabuza's partner was and did not like the idea of Shino having to fight the hunter-nin alone. She couldn't let this stalemate situation go on for much longer, she needed to find some way to change the dynamics of the fight before it was too late for Tazuna or her students.

She just couldn't think of how to go about doing that.

* * *

Shino stared in wonder at the dome of ice mirrors trapping him, though the high collar of his jacket and his sunglasses effectively hid it from all except those who knew him best.

The fight with Zabuza's hunter-nin partner had started off well. The hunter-nin, a female according to his pheromone-sensitive bugs, was quick and accurate, with better taijutsu skills than Shino himself. But he was half a head taller than her and had spent years learning to make the best use of his reach advantage over his academy classmates. Combined with judicious use of bug clones to attack from her flanks while he engaged her frontally, Shino had slowly but steadily gained the advantage during the fight. Her ability to use jutsu with one-handed seals had been a surprise, but his bug clone had been able to disrupt the jutsu by attacking her exposed side mid-seal and forcing her to abandon the attempt to defend.

Then she had revealed her Kekkei Genkai with this bizarre ice technique, panels of ice mirrors surrounding him on all sides and even some above, the hunter-nin's image on every single one of them.

Shino threw a kunai experimentally at one of the mirrors. He frowned as it bounced off without leaving even a scratch.

The hunter-nin's answer came in the form of a pair of senbon, grazing his left and right upper arms from the front and back respectively.

Shino's mind systematically analyzed possibilities as he released his Kikaichu to probe the ice mirrors. As he expected, they refused to physically touch the mirrors due to their unnatural chakra-laced coldness. He settled for forming a Mushi Bunshin to attack a mirror with kunai in hand while he turned and moved to attack one on the opposite side. He left a number of bugs with particularly well-developed occeli eyes in the middle of the dome, watching the attacks play out from various angles.

Something struck him in the stomach, and he felt himself being lifted off his feet and thrown back into the center of the dome. The bugs returning to his body told him that his bug clone had suffered a similar fate. He frowned once more as he struggled back to his feet; neither he nor his bug clone had seen the attacks that repulsed them.

The observer bugs he had left behind helped to paint a more complete picture when they returned to his body to report. Unlike compound eyes, an insect's occeli were poorly adapted to seeing images, being suited to detecting changes in lighting instead. In addition their extremely large neurons, allowing for much quicker delivery of information, gave them the ability to track rapid movements that the slower responding compound eyes were unable to.

Straightening his posture and adjusting his sunglasses, Shino considered the additional information that his observer bugs provided. He and his bug clone hadn't been struck at the same time. There was a short but, to a highly developed occeli at least, visible delay between the attacks. Furthermore, the hunter-nin's image disappeared from the mirrors briefly before reappearing after both attacks.

"I see," Shino finally commented, "you hide inside the mirrors, but your presence in all of them is merely an illusion. In reality, you move from one to the other at extremely high speeds and have to exit to attack."

"I'm impressed, and only after two probing attacks," the hunter-nin replied, with a degree of respect in her voice. "Insight won't help though, if you do not have the ability to exploit it effectively."

"That may be true, but you lack the knowledge to assess whether I have the ability."

"I know more than you think Aburame-san. Basic information about your clan's abilities is documented and available to any with the means of access in Kiri. Am I correct in guessing that your bugs refuse to touch my ice mirrors due to their coldness?"

"Perhaps," Shino said noncommittally. Even if the enemy had seen through your abilities, there was nothing to be gained by confirming and reinforcing their knowledge.

"Then in what way am I lacking knowledge of your abilities?"

"It is possible," Shino suggested with an idle tone, "that even those with unique advantages such as the two of us could avail ourselves of useful techniques outside our clan-based..."

A large explosion, originating from just outside of the dome of ice mirrors, drowned out Shino's last word. He had used the time before and during his conversation with the hunter-nin to discreetly disperse Kikaichu outside the ice dome and re-gather them into a bug clone. The clone had then retrieved a backup weapons pouch that Shino had hidden amongst the construction materials during the morning, pulled out every explosive tagged kunai it contained, and detonated them all at once against the outside of an ice mirror using a piece of lumber to hold them against the mirror's center.

Shino's eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses as the hunter-nin's image disappeared from the mirrors. He couldn't see where she had gone, but the most likely explanation was that she had exited the mirrors to the outside to check on the aftereffects of the explosion. So she could exit both sides of a mirror but could only watch events inside, as otherwise his clone would never have been able to go through with the scheme undetected. That was good to know, but still not useful if he couldn't get out himself and his bug clone had no way of breaking the mirror from the outside.

The hunter-nin's image reappeared on the mirror a few seconds later.

"That was an interesting tactic Aburame-san. Distracting me with conversation while a bug clone, I presume, attacked my mirror using explosive tags. Now, allow me to respond with an attack of my own."

The brief flash of light was the only warning he had, and Shino threw his arms up to cover his face just in time as a rain of senbon fell toward him from seemingly all directions at once.

It didn't take long for Shino to realize that the hunter-nin wasn't trying to kill him. Her senbon were too precise, starting with attacks that grazed him lightly and moving progressively inward. To Shino's analytical mind it was obvious that she was avoiding vital spots on his body that might kill if struck. Instead she aimed for targets that caused bleeding or pressure points that numbed his limbs and slowed his movements. Either she fought sadistically and intended to kill him slowly one light wound at a time, or she was trying to subdue him without taking his life.

Considering the situation as well as her words and actions before and during the fight, Shino thought the latter was the more likely option.

Normally a reluctance to kill was an exploitable handicap in a fight; given two fighters with equal skill the one willing to kill will always defeat the one not willing. In this instance however Shino was unable to turn the situation to his own advantage. In fact, for the first time since he started his ninja training the bug user was completely at a loss for how to address the problem before him. His opponent's unique abilities had effectively shut his own special skills down, and what he had left wasn't up to the task of defeating her. He didn't have any means of destroying the mirrors and he simply wasn't fast enough to intercept her when she traveled between them.

Once more Shino put himself back to back with his bug clone and prepared for the next wave of senbon. Using the clone this way was effective in preventing his opponent from scoring hits against his back. It was a delaying tactic at best though. The continual chakra drain of having to reform the bug clone after every senbon wave and the accumulated effects of his various injuries were taking their toll, and he was beginning to approach the limits of his stamina. He only hoped that Naruto could make it in time to take over the fight and prevent the hunter-nin from aiding Zabuza.

Until then, he had to endure on the best he could.

* * *

Naruto came to a stop just before he reached the bridge. Taking a few seconds to catch his breath before he involved himself in the battle, he used the time to survey the situation to find out where he could be most useful.

Sakura was off the bridge as well, guarding Tazuna behind her. Near the middle of the bridge, Zabuza was engaged in a running fight with a number of Kurenai. Naruto guessed that there was some genjutsu involved that he couldn't see if the Mist swordsman was having trouble fighting with Bunshin.

Furthest away from him, near the uncompleted end of the bridge, was some sort of odd glittering white dome structure. Turning his head to keep the left side of his face hidden from Sakura and Tazuna, Naruto pushed his hitai-ate up enough to expose his left eye. He blinked several times, allowing his eyes to adjust to the enhanced level of perception.

The dome was made up of rectangular panels of ice. A ring of panels standing vertically from the deck of the bridge formed the sides of the structure while a number of diagonally angled panels made up the roof. There were gaps between the panels, but they looked to be too narrow for someone to get through. As he focused his vision, Naruto caught glimpses of what looked like Shino inside the dome. He decided that was where he could do the most good.

He looked around and saw several boats moored at the base of the bridge, probably used by the construction crew for working on the bridge's supporting columns and understructure. They were floating in the water close enough for Naruto to jump from one to the other, and extended all the way to the bridge's uncompleted end.

Naruto pulled his hitai-ate back down as he ran down to the shoreline and started making his way across the line of boats, using them as a path to get to Shino's position without having to go through the fight between Zabuza and Kurenai. Reaching the last boat, he jumped on the adjacent supporting pillar and ran vertically up its length to the bridge deck using what he had learned from the tree walking exercise.

Once on the deck Naruto approached the ice dome cautiously. He had never read of anything like this and didn't want to be blindsided by an unexpected attack. From this distance he could see that it was definitely Shino inside, moving as if he was hurt and turning back and forth with kunai in hand trying to defend against some type of attack Naruto couldn't see. He could hear metal clashing against metal inside the dome, but the sound was too light to be kunai or shuriken.

Naruto reached out and placed one careful hand against one of the ice panels. It chilled his skin and felt like normal ice, but didn't seem to melt to his body heat. He then tried an ice panel from various angles with his wooden sword. Even though the panels only seemed to be about two inches thick, he couldn't even make a crack in the ice striking at full strength.

He didn't have time to carefully experiment with the ice until he found a way in; Shino needed his help. Naruto pulled out a tightly folded wad of cloth from an inside pocket of his jacket. Unfolded to its full size, the thin cloth was as long as he was tall and wider than he was at the shoulders. He then pulled a kunai and cut the back of his left forearm. Smearing his blood on one of the narrower edges and using it as an adhesive, the blond quickly attached the cloth to one of the ice panels furthest away from where Shino was standing.

The cloth was another of Naruto's explosive tag experiments; the largest he thought would be practical in a mission. There was a trigger seal on each of the longer ends of the cloth, linked together so that triggering one would simultaneously set off the other. Each trigger seal was also linked to several chains of regular-sized explosive nodes, with each chain set to go off in series one node after the other nearly simultaneously. The chains approached the center of the cloth in a loose spiraling pattern, where they all circled around and then converged onto a single oversized explosive node.

Naruto had come onto this design by accident. After timing a chain of explosive nodes wrong, he noticed that if the explosions went off in series with very little delay, the explosion was significantly larger at the end of the chain than at the beginning. It seemed as if one explosion pushed some of the energy of the next incrementally later explosion down the line. When he tried wrapping a series of chains into a spiral around a central node, he discovered that much of the explosive energy of the chains was being channeled inwards to the central node. When the central node detonated at the end of the explosive chains it was more like an intense concentrated spike of explosive force rather than the more dispersed cloud of a regular node. He had made the cloth tag with the idea of breaching barricaded doors in mind, but it seemed like it might work against the ice panels as well.

Naruto triggered the oversized cloth tag and ducked out of the way. A few seconds later, the explosion was accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. He ran in through the newly opened gap in the ice dome, sword before him gripped in both hands in a diagonal guard.

The sight that greeted him stunned the young blond. A bloody Shino was at the far side of the dome on his knees, kunai still clutched in one hand while the other hand was on the ground supporting his weight. What surprised him though was what he saw on the ice panels now that he was inside the dome. There was an image of a person inside each of the panels, masked and dressed in the way his sensei had described the hunter-nin. They all seemed to be the same image too, down to identical poses with left hand held up across the chest lightly holding a pair of senbon.

Something about the image seemed familiar to him. Naruto pushed that thought aside for the moment though. He ran to his injured teammate and took a light kneeling posture beside the bug user, sword still held up in a defensive guard and blue eye scanning around the ice panels trying to find any differences between the images.

"How bad are you hurt?" Naruto asked Shino in a low tone.

"I'm low on chakra, took a lot of hits to pressure points that slow or numb, I don't think I'm combat effective anymore," Shino whispered back through clenched teeth. "She can throw senbon from any mirror, but isn't aiming to kill and moves too fast for me to keep up"

"Lie down and recover until you can rejoin the fight; she might not attack if she thinks you're out. I'll see what I can do."

The bug user did as suggested and slumped down to lie on the ground face down as if his strength had given out. Naruto backed away from his teammate to the middle of the ice dome, eye never leaving the images in the panels the entire time. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that the panel he had blown apart had reformed already.

He made a mental note to carry more than one of the cloth tags in the future; it seemed like having another one might really help right about now.

"I'm surprised you were able to breach my ice mirrors. What type of jutsu was it that you used?"

The words seemed to come from all around him at once, a dozen voices in unison reverberating back and forth around the dome of ice.

Naruto simply shrugged. He wasn't naïve enough to tell an enemy about his abilities.

"If you won't answer my question, then I suppose we have to get to the fighting. Please prepare yourself."

All of the images twitched their left hands; a fraction of a second later he felt pain flash from his left shoulder.

Naruto turned and saw a senbon sticking in the fleshy part of his shoulder. He pulled it out and dropped it with a grimace; the hunter-nin was using his blind side against him. He settled back into a ready posture again, facing a different direction. This time when the twitch came he threw himself into a forward roll.

A slight scraping pain against the right side of his back near the shoulder told him he'd guessed right. The hunter-nin had attacked from his blind side again, but at an angle to his back this time. The roll had prevented the senbon from embedding itself into his back. Instead it only grazed him in passing.

Naruto broke out of his roll near the edge of the dome with sword held above his head ready for a downward strike on the closest mirror panel. He didn't know if the mirrors were any different from this side, but without an enemy he could actually hit this was the only thing that came to mind. Before he could bring his hands down however, something slammed into his left side under his raised arms.

He caught a glimpse of her as he fell; she had come completely out of the ice mirrors to kick him from his blind side.

His nerves responded just as he fell to the ground, vision dimming from the waves of pain flooding over his senses. He clenched his teeth, willing his body to move through the pain, pushing himself back onto his feet using the sword as a crutch. He didn't know whether the kick had broken his already fractured ribs, but there wasn't time to check now.

The figure twitched again and Naruto moved instinctively. He ignored the fresh burst of vision-blurring pain from his ribs as he turned to the left, sweeping the sword across his body to deflect another senbon aimed at his blind side. A fraction of a second later a point of pain flared across his back as another senbon embedded itself into his right shoulder blade.

He decided to leave it for the moment; reaching back to pull it out would leave him too exposed. The attack had given him a flash of insight however. Shino said that she moved too fast for him to keep up, and he had seen her come out of the mirror to kick him.

She wasn't in all the mirrors at once. She was moving from one to the other too fast for his eye to track.

The answer was obvious to the blond. It wasn't one he liked however. He didn't know how Shino would react, but he couldn't think of another option.

Right hand keeping his sword in a defensive guard, Naruto moved his left hand to push his hitai-ate up. The blurriness in his vision immediately faded as he saw everything with a new clarity. He could see the movement in the images' abdomens as the hunter-nin breathed, the tiny tremors in her fingertips holding the senbon, the way her head inclined slightly as if to study him.

"That red eye, that's not a Sharingan is it? I thought the Uchiha had been wiped out."

"It's nothing special, just a quirk of family genetics," Naruto replied, using the line that his sensei had used on Team Eight's first day.

"Then why cover it?"

"I'm not… well liked in my village. They don't treat me kindly for a certain reason. If they saw this my treatment would be… worse."

It wasn't a good answer, not very convincing and constructed from evasions and partial truths. But it was what he could give without revealing anything he wanted to keep secret.

"I… see."

This time the voice was more restrained and without echo, as if only the image before him spoke. For a second Naruto thought he detected a hint of sympathy in the tone, but quickly dismissed the idea.

Naruto caught the flash of movement this time. He spun and brought his sword close to his body to block the senbon attacks; first against the neck, then down to his hip as he dropped his stance lower at the end of the spin. Pushing off with his back leg he darted to his right to intercept the hunter-nin, only to have his downward strike miss her by inches as she re-entered a mirror.

"Even if it isn't a Sharingan, it's not just a normal eye is it?"

Naruto didn't answer, instead pulling the two senbon stuck into his sword near the hilt and tossing them aside before settling himself back into a ready posture in the middle of the dome.

"It seems I'll have to get more serious with you."

A rain of senbon burst from all around him like a sudden storm. His eyes could just track the movement as she darted from mirror to mirror in a blur, but his body couldn't keep up. He managed to deflect the first few senbon before the rest struck him, sending so many bursts of pain through his nerves that he felt as if his whole body was momentarily on fire.

Naruto staggered back into position, trying to think of a plan. He didn't have time however; another storm of senbon from all around him brought the blond to his knees. He had lost count of the number of times he'd been hit. Though she wasn't trying to kill him and had yet to hit anything that would seriously impair his fighting capability, the pain of so many accumulated senbon strikes was still substantial.

Once more the blond pushed himself back to his feet with his sword. He knew he had to do something to interrupt her pattern, or else she would eventually wear him down by sheer blood loss alone. In order to do that though he had to create an opening he could exploit, some way he could predict her movement through the mirrors to compensate for the difference in speed between them.

Sucking in a large lungful of air through the pain Naruto put his right foot forward, turning his posture sideways. His body was now squarely facing the mirror he thought the hunter-nin had last entered while his eyes looked to the right. His hands came up to his left shoulder, holding the sword parallel to the ground with its tip pointed in line with the direction of his gaze. From this stance he could effectively defend himself against senbon attacks coming from where the hunter-nin was hidden. With a slight shift in body alignment his front could be covered as well. His left side was exposed and unprotected however; he was counting on her seeing that.

"Why don't you stay down? You can't beat me. We're only after the bridge builder, if you stay down you'll live."

This time Naruto definitely heard the sympathy and concern in the hunter-nin's voice. Was she pitying him?

Naruto gritted his teeth. "I have to fight. This is my mission."

The images sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that. You leave me no choice now, please forgive me."

For several seconds the two stared at each other in silence, masked brown eyes meeting determined red and blue ones. Then out of the corner of his red eye he caught the flash of moment again. He sprung into action without hesitation, shifting his weight and turning to face opposite of where he had been looking before breaking off into a full sprint.

As he hoped the hunter-nin had moved to a mirror that would allow her to take advantage of his exposed left side. Naruto wasn't fast enough to catch her getting to the mirror; his plan depended on getting in range as she exited and picking the right direction to attack. He dashed forward, bringing his arms before him to absorb the senbon aimed at his neck and upper body while ignoring those that stabbed at his abdomen and legs. The blond struck just as she was leaving the mirror, his downward strike angled to the mirror's left catching her on the forearm solidly. His follow-up kick was blocked however when she threw both of her arms in front of her.

A thin hand darted up between his own arms, an open palm strike catching him on the chin. Naruto staggered back from the blow before twisting the right side of his body away to evade a pair of senbon aimed at the right side of his neck. The hunter-nin was immediately on him with a left backfist to the head, forcing him to bring his elbows up to block. Then she chambered her left leg and slammed a thrusting side kick into his exposed left ribs.

…

Agony.

There was nothing in his existence but pain.

He couldn't breathe. Something was in his throat. A choking gasp brought nothing into his lungs, brought a tsunami of pain crashing into his consciousness.

Dimly, he was aware that he had fallen to his knees, supporting his body upright with shaking hands holding onto the sword.

_Hands? No, not hands._

His left arm hung limply at his side. It refused to move, no matter what he told it to do.

There was something wrong with his chest. The left side moved too much when he tried to breathe again.

Another tidal wave of excruciating pain washed over him, almost dragging him down with it.

Something was dribbling out his mouth. Warm and coppery.

Black tendrils crept into the edge of his vision, the world was blurring in and out.

He needed to breathe. He couldn't get a breath.

Something at the edge of his consciousness. Someone screaming his name.

Why was Shino running at him?

So tired. Just a little rest.

He closed his eyes.

The darkness engulfed him.

* * *

Clutching her throbbing arm to her side, Haku was taken aback by the sight of the blond before her.

Naruto, she reminded herself. His name was Naruto.

She remembered because it was such a unique name.

She had meant to knock the breath out of him, temporarily incapacitate him so she could help Zabuza. All she needed was a few seconds; she just had to distract the Jounin genjutsu user long enough for Zabuza to finish the job. Then they could get away from this broken place.

That was how it had always been. Do the job as quickly as possible, as efficiently as possible, and then move on. Just the two of them.

He was kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath, coughing blood. She could tell that something was seriously wrong with him.

She hadn't meant to kick him so hard; she'd only wanted to put him down temporarily. But then the burst of pain from the wooden sword smashing into her right arm had shocked her, and she had reacted with instinct developed through years of training.

The other one, the one who used bugs, was running to Naruto now, holding him upright before he could slump to the ground.

This was her chance. She could go help Zabuza now; she had her few seconds.

But she hesitated.

She had killed before. She had killed to defend herself, and she had killed because she was ordered to. She had long ago learned to deal with the emotions, when she had killed someone she intended to.

But she hadn't meant to do it. She'd only wanted to put him unconscious so she could help Zabuza. It felt… wrong somehow, leaving him like that, when she was responsible.

Naruto's body jerked back up, and for a second she thought that he was alright, that she had been wrong about how badly he'd been hurt.

He pushed his teammate aside and rose to his feet, sword lying forgotten on the ground.

Her eyes widened beneath the mask. There was some kind of visible aura of white chakra covering him. She had never seen anything like it.

There was something frighteningly alien about the expression in his face. In the way his two red eyes seemed to stare straight through her mask, through her eyes, into her very being. As if he was already watching her die.

Reflexively she brought up a handful of senbon and flung them in one motion. He didn't react, allowing them to pierce the flesh on his arms, on his face, in his chest.

Then, one by one, the senbon fell out out him.

No, _pushed out_, she corrected herself. As if he was healing the wounds as they happened.

The white chakra enveloping him was twisting and coiling now, merging into thick strands, congealing into clumps. She looked closer and thought she saw a pattern in the way the chakra patterns were arranged around him, almost as if he was turning into…

A fist slamming into her stomach interrupted her thought, doubling her over and making her gasp for breath.

She hadn't seen him move; she wondered when he had covered the distance between them.

Before she could recover his hand was on her throat, lifting her off her feet in a suffocating grip. She struggled weakly against him, trying to force the fingers open enough to get more air into her lungs.

His chakra was flaring up even more. The white aura was so blindingly brilliant that she had to close her eyes and put her hand up to cover them.

Then she heard her world shatter around her.

* * *

Kurenai froze, hands in a half-formed seal, as she felt the first spike of chakra. It was powerful and unlike anything she had ever felt. It didn't even feel like it came from a human being.

She spared the ice dome a quick glance, noting out of the corner of her eye that Zabuza had paused to do the same thing.

The first thing she saw was the unearthly glow. The ice dome was being illuminated from within, making it look like some bizarre giant lamp. The light grew more and more intense, until…

She jumped back when the ice dome shattered like dropped glass. She didn't know what was happening, but whatever it was the further away from Zabuza she was the more time she would have to react. The mist swordsman apparently had the same idea, retreating to his side of the bridge even as she moved to the opposite side.

It was then that she saw Naruto, standing where the dome had been with an aura of visible white chakra swirling wildly around him. His hand was around the hunter-nin's neck, lifting Zabuza's partner into the air with one arm. Shino was backing away from the blond, one hand thrown over his eyes to protect himself from the intense glare of Naruto's chakra.

Kurenai's first thought was that Naruto's seal had broken. She had sensed him moving along the line of boats by the bridge to join Shino's fight with the hunter-nin. The Third had assured her that Naruto's seal could not break, and that if he was killed the Kyuubi would die with him.

Could he have been wrong? Could she prevent the Kyuubi from breaking free? Even if Zabuza were to help, trying to save his partner, could the two of them kill Naruto before he became the Demon Fox completely?

She quashed that line of thought, her rational mind reasserting itself over her initial panic at the possibility of the Kyuubi being released. The older shinobi in the village, the ones who had been there fighting it, always described the overwhelming sense of malevolence that surrounded the Demon Fox. She felt none of that in this white chakra.

But then if wasn't the Kyuubi, what was going on with Naruto? She knew that the blond had an enormous chakra reserve. She hadn't told him straight out, but his reserves were already at a low Jounin level. This was so far beyond that pale though that she had difficulty comprehending it. Even the Hokage himself couldn't burn chakra so freely as to create a constantly visible aura without soon collapsing from chakra exhaustion.

She shifted her eyes from Naruto to Zabuza and back again, maintaining her guard against the mist swordsman but feeling helpless inside. She wanted to go to her student, find out what was going on and try to calm him down. But if she moved Zabuza would have the perfect opportunity to attack her. The same thing would happen if he moved; she would be able to finish him before he could get to his partner.

Once again she found herself in a stalemate position, waiting for someone to make the next move.

* * *

**Omake courtesy of Crass Clown:**

Sakura's stomach rumbled as they made their way along the path to Wave. Reaching into her pack she was disappointed to find that all she had left to eat were ration bars. While they would fill her, the taste was less than desirable.

Instead she decided to see if she could entice either of her teammates to share with her. She was still somewhat uncomfortable with Shino and his bugs, so she decided to coax Naruto. Increasing her pace, she tapped him on the shoulder, remembering to do it on his good side so he could see her. Naruto turned his head sharply in reaction before calming and shooting her a quizzical look.

"Sorry Naruto. I was just wondering if you had any real food you'd be willing to share… please?" she asked putting on a face deserving of some pity. She was lowering herself a step but it was worth it for some food that tasted better than cardboard. Naruto raised an eyebrow before sighing. "Sure I don't see why not," he said with a shrug before rummaging through his pack with a free hand before pulling out a small cup of instant ramen. "All you have to do is add water and heat it, although I don't know the next time we're stopping."

Sakura took the cup with a small smile, although inwardly disappointed, she continued telling herself it would at least taste better. "No it's fine. I can heat it on the go." she reassured her teammate as she peeled back the lid on the cup and poured water from her canteen into it with her other hand.

Naruto gave her another questioning look."And how are you going to heat it?"

"It's an advanced academy jutsu I found while in the Library. While relatively simple, it has basically not practical combat applications, so not many people bother with it. But it seemed useful for long trips and I guess this proved me right," she said cheerfully before continuing her explanation, "all it really requires is gathering chakra in your hand to apply friction to the object you're holding, heating it."

"Oh, that actually does sound fairly useful," Naruto said thoughtfully before something clicked.

"Wait did you say applying CHAKRA?!"

"Yes, Why?" Sakura questioned as she looked down as her hand heated the cup… right as it exploded. Noodles and broth were sprayed all over the group as they were blown away by the explosion.

Everyone began to get up slowly, thankfully only bruised with a few scratches. Naruto rolled his head before freezing as he felt a Killing Intent behind him.

"NA-RU-TO!!!" Sakura screeched as she stood up with a noodle dangling in front of her face. She clenched a fist and leaped at the blonde with a fist cocked back fully.

The blonde back stepped away from the punch. "Now Sakura I can explain, it was  
an accident!" Naruto started as he dove under another swing. "I tag all my…"  
the blonde was cut off as a ration bar was embedded into the ground.

"...Screw it."

And with that Naruto took off down the path running from the furious kunoichi.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Thanks to Crass Clown for offering the omake. It's nice to know that my work is decent enough that someone's inspired to create something based on it.

I hope that the Haku conversation was believable, as in both canon and here it represents an important point in Naruto's mental and emotional development. I might have made her outlook on shinobi life a shade brighter than in canon, or perhaps it was just a consequence of the specific wording choice that the conversation flow led to.

The Inari conversation is important as well, and it plays off the Haku conversation. Inari and Naruto managed to push each other's buttons very effectively during their exchange, resulting in a more violent confrontation than canon. Perhaps it was unprofessional and/or unethical to treat a little kid that way, but Naruto's not much older himself. He's far from a perfect person and has his own demons to contend with, literally and figuratively.

I've done a minor rebalancing of Haku's combat abilities in order to better prepare her for an ongoing role in the story. The ice mirrors are positioned closer together than in canon, so that Naruto-sized characters can't just walk in and out the gaps. You could consider that canon Haku didn't feel that Sasuke (who acted very eager to get into battle on the bridge) was an escape threat and placed the mirrors slightly further apart for a tactical advantage. On the other hand her taijutsu ability has been reduced a bit, perhaps due to the natural difference in male and female upper body strength.

I've had comments pointing out that Naruto really shouldn't be the master of his own style of kenjutsu given that he's been training for two years, most of it without a proper instructor and on his own. Well, he isn't. The extra reach and lethality of a sword (even a wooden one) gives a kenjutsu fighter a significant advantage over a taijutsu fighter, all other things being equal. But that doesn't make Naruto a master of close combat. There are some drawbacks to using a sword as a ninja though, some of which Naruto have come across, while others he will discover in time. In terms of power balance, the prevailing theme I'm following is tradeoffs. You can have your cake and eat it too, but you have to bake it beforehand and do the dishes afterwards.

One last note, I finally threw some stuff together and put a profile up.

**Glossary/Notes:**

Hitai-ate: Forehead protector.

Mushi Bunshin: Insect Clone Technique.

Shinobue: One of several types of Japanese transverse flutes made from bamboo.

4/09/10: First Upload


	6. Am I Dreaming? Or Seeing Nothing?

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Six: Am I Dreaming? Or Seeing Nothing?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

He looked about wildly, blue eyes darting left and right, trying to orient himself after the sudden shift in his perception.

Rough stone walls surrounded him, paths leading off to either side. Pale luminescent glow outlining everything, coming from seemingly nowhere and everywhere.

He shook his head, trying to piece his memories together. Hazy images of a bridge and someone in a mask drifted in and out of his mind, but he couldn't pull them together into anything solid.

Suddenly there was a voice behind his shoulder, a light whispering that he couldn't understand, warm breath tickling his ear.

He whirled around, eyes wide.

No one was there.

He heard the whispering once more, echoing from further down the corridor. It was leading him on, guiding him down one particular path.

He followed the whispering voice, because it was the only thing he could think to do in this strange unknown place. He followed it through tunnels, around corners, past dark branching passageways, until the background lighting brightened and he found himself standing at the entrance to a large cavern.

"_**Onii-chan, you've come back!**_"

There was a girl running towards him from across the cavern. She looked to be eight or nine and wore a frilled red skirt matched by a red vest over a short-sleeved white shirt. Under a white mop hat with a tattered red ribbon, her bob of short blonde hair bounced wildly as she ran.

What caught his attention most were her eyes, scarlet-red surrounding pools of dark vermilion in the center.

"_**Come on, let's play!**_"

She had caught up to him, and was dragging him back to the center of the cavern with a vice-like grip on his hand.

"Eh?" he replied lamely. He didn't know who she was, where this place was, or how he had even gotten here. For that matter, his mind kept drawing a blank when he tried to think of who he was.

"_**You're the demon!**_"

He felt his blood run cold and his feet halt in mid-step, though he didn't know the reason why. The girl turned to look at him with a quizzical expression, and then pulled him along with a surprising strength until he found himself in the center of the large cavern.

"_**We're going to play Kagome Kagome. You're going to be the demon!**_"

He let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. Kagome Kagome. He was familiar with the children's game. He didn't remember ever having played it, but the rules came to him as if he had watched others playing many times. The person who was chosen to be the demon sat in the center, blindfolded. The others then joined hands and walked in a circle around the demon while singing.

"How?" he asked, pushing aside his past confusion temporarily for this new one, "there aren't enough people."

She gave him a wide grin that showed off a set of gleaming white teeth. Then the air around her shimmered, and he was startled to find himself looking at twelve identical copies of the girl standing behind her.

Small hands pressed down on his shoulders, pulling him down from behind until he found himself seated on a chair that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The hands then moved up his face, fingertips lightly brushing his cheeks, until they made their way to his hair. They moved back down, pulling something with them, and his vision was replaced with pitch blackness.

There was light shuffling all around him; the girls forming a circle. Then they began to sing, a chorus of light feminine voices spinning around him.

_**Kagome Kagome, the bird in the cage,**_

_**when will it come out?**_

_**In the evening of the dawn, the crane and turtle fell,**_

_**who stands behind you now?**_

"Umm… I don't know?" He didn't know how else he was supposed to answer, as she'd never told him her name.

The girl giggled, a high-pitched titter that began behind but spread all around him. Then abruptly, as if at some hidden signal, they all stopped. He had just parted his lips to say something when he felt the slight tugging in his navel. The feeling bloomed until it felt as if his entire body was being pulled inwards on itself.

As quickly as it began the feeling stopped, and he was overcome by a sudden sensation of change. It took him several seconds before his mind caught up with the signals various parts of his body were sending about their new positions, watery eyes blinking from the sudden influx of light the whole while. He wasn't sitting in the center of the circle anymore, though he hadn't felt himself being moved at all. Instead it was the girl seated in the chair, mop hat tilted down over her face to cover her eyes.

He was directly behind her, where she had been a moment ago. He was now part of the circle imprisoning her, holding hands in a chained circle with a dozen identical copies of himself.

"_**Naruto! Uzumaki Naruto is behind me!**_" the girl declared proudly as she jumped out of the chair.

His hazy memories suddenly took on solidity as she called out his name. Scenes flashed before him in a jumbled torrent of sounds and colors, of thoughts and feelings. He found himself nearly overwhelmed as twelve years of memories flooded back into his consciousness all at once. He closed his eyes tightly and put his head in his hands, trying to pick out the most relevant images so he could make sense of his current situation.

This was a dream, he realized, one he'd experienced before. He remembered he had the same dream a year ago, of the cavern and the little girl, just before his empty left eye socket grew an unnatural red eye. Jiji had told him that the first dream was a visual manifestation of his mind, so this one must be the same thing. But why was he dreaming now?

Images of a bridge and a masked girl came to the surface of his consciousness again, but this time took on a new importance as his mind attached other memories to them. He remembered being on the bridge, fighting the hunter-nin. There was the glint of senbon, a flash of her fist just missing his face, the kick and the overwhelming pain, and then… nothing.

Was he dead?

No, he corrected himself, he couldn't be dead. At least not yet. If this dream was like the last then he was in his mind. He was probably unconscious, stuck in his own mind while his team fought without him.

He had to find a way out. His team was fighting while he was passed out; he had to wake up and help his team.

Mind cleared and memories sorted, he opened his eyes and lifted his head again. He found himself looking into the girl's red eyes. She had moved in front of him while he was sorting out his thoughts, and was now standing bent forward with her head upturned to look into his face. He noticed absently that the chair and all his clones had disappeared as well; it was just the two of them again.

"_**Onii-chan, look! I got out of the cage,**_" the girl said with a playful grin on her face.

"Cage?" he asked uncertainly.

"_**We were playing remember? I'm the demon and I got out of the cage!**_"

It took several seconds for the full implications of her words to register in his mind.

"You're… you're the Kyuubi? And you're loose?"

"_**The what? The thing with all the tails? Oh no, I'm much cuter than that thing. Or at least I was…**_" She let her voice drift off, eyes looking to the side and face scrunched up in contemplation.

"That… thing? If you're not Kyuubi, then what happened to it?"

"_**We ate it. Someone told us to eat it and we did. It was really icky though, tasted like rotten meat.**_"

"We?"

She simply pointed to her right in response. His eyes followed her gesture, the lighting in the cavern spreading as his gaze moved. He found himself looking at the familiar web of chains with the paper seal attached to the center. The scene was identical to what he remembered from the last dream, with one difference.

"What happened to the bones in there?" he asked as he turned back to the girl.

"_**My other self? I let It out. It's using your body now Onii-chan, you don't need it anymore.**_"

"I…" His voice trailed off. What did she mean? Was he really dead? Then why was he here and not in…

The girl interrupted his thoughts, speaking as she jogged in lazy circles with her arms outstretched, tilting left and right as if she were a bird. "_**I was watching that fight you know, I can see what your eye sees. You really suck onii-chan, that onee-chan was about to break you.**_"

"Break me? What do you mean?"

"_**Onee-chan did something to you that made red stuff come out of your mouth and made your chest all like this,**_" she flapped one hand back and forth at the wrist to indicate her point. "_**I fixed your body though. Wouldn't be nice to let It play with something that's broken.**_"

"You… you healed me? Then… then you can wake me up and put me back in control of my body?"

"_**Uh uh onii-chan. You don't need it anymore remember? You're dead.**_"

"I'm… dead? You're lying, I can't be dead! This is a dream, just like last time. I'm in my mind again. I can't be dead if I'm just dreaming!"

"_**This isn't a dream, not really. But you are in your mind. Out there your body's still moving, but it's not yours anymore.**_"

"What? You can't… you can't just take my body!"

"_**Why not? If I hadn't fixed it you would be dead out there. Just be happy I'm letting you play some games in here with me before you go away forever.**_"

"Go away forever?"

"_**Pretty soon you'll be gone, poof!**_" She threw her hands upwards and outwards as if to imitate an explosion. "_**People can't live without a body you know. Your mind just hasn't realized that you're dead yet.**_"

"But… but, you can't let me die!" he stammered in response as his tone started becoming hysterical. "If I die you die too! That's what the seal does. You said you healed my body, so you have to put me back or we'll both die!"

She poked him in the chest with one finger and laughed before turning away to jog in circles with arms stretched out again. "_**You haven't been paying attention have you onii-chan? Maybe the seal would have killed the thing with the tails when you died, but do you see any tails on me?**_"

"But… but, you can't just… it's still my body, even if you did heal me you can't just do what you want! You have no right to take it!"

In some corner of his mind, he knew that his words sounded feeble. But he couldn't think of anything else to say. He felt as if the logical foundations of his existence were crumbling around him.

The girl stopped in her tracks and turned to meet his gaze. Her red eyes took on an unnatural cold depth. Her mouth, still curved upwards with a smile, twisted into a deranged parody of childlike innocence. To him it seemed as if her face, while still retaining the basic form of humanity, had subtly shifted in such a way so that the parts taken together could no longer be described as a human facial expression. Without conscious thought, he took an involuntary step back at the sight.

"_**Your body? No. We've been trapped here as long as you've been alive, and I've been bored for twelve years while you got to have a life. If I hadn't fixed your body it would still be broken, and you would have died anyway. If I didn't allow it neither you nor It could use the body. The way I see it, that means the body is mine as much as yours."**_

"You're lying! You don't control my body like that!" he insisted stubbornly.

She laughed at him, a sharp demented cackle that only underscored just how alien her appearance had become. "_**Then why can't you wake up from your dreams until I let you? Why can't you take your body back now? How could I give your body my own eye?**_"

He watched, horrified, as her left hand reached up to her face and dug into her eye socket. With a sickening squelch she pulled her left eye out of her head. Her tongue flicked over the left side of her face to catch some of the crimson liquid flowing freely out of the eye socket, while her thumb and index finger held the eyeball by its trailing optic nerve, dangling it in front of her like a piece of jewelry.

He stood in stunned silence. His mouth moved, but he couldn't find any words to articulate.

The girl laughed at him, a childish laugh this time that seemed completely out of place. She put her head down and brought her left hand to her face. When she looked up again her face was whole and bloodless, and her smiling expression had returned to one of youthful impishness.

"_**If you really want your body back onii-chan, I'll give you a chance. Let's play a game for it. Convince me that your life has meaning and I'll give it back. If you can't, you stay here and play with me forever until you go away.**_"

"Convince you? How?" he asked uncertainly, forcing his mind to work through the shock of the scene he'd just witnessed.

"_**It's easy!**_ _**Tell me what the purpose of your life is. Show me that there's a point to letting you go on.**_"

"The purpose of my life?"

He paused to think for a second before continuing. "It's to become the greatest Hokage ever."

"_**Don't lie to me onii-chan,**_" she admonished with a wagging finger, "_**I've been in your mind as long as you've been alive. You can't hide things from me.**_"

He growled in annoyance. "Then why don't you tell me what the purpose of my life is?"

She giggled at his angry tone. "_**How could I tell you when you don't even know in your heart?**_"

Her words brought him up short. A week ago he could have immediately given her an answer he was certain of in his mind, though he had a feeling it wasn't one she would have accepted. Now he wasn't even sure himself. How could he give her an answer he didn't have?

'_If you're unhappy with the answer that you've been given, you'll have to find one that works for you and stick to it._'

His sensei had said that. That was what he had to do now, find his own answer. And he had to do it before he died. Or became more dead. He wasn't sure how that worked, but didn't really have time to figure it out.

"The purpose to my life is to become the strongest ninja I can be," he tried.

"_**Why?**_"

"What do you mean why? It's the purpose of every ninja to get as strong as he can be, so he can be useful to his village. That's why you have to put me back."

"_**What do I care about what you have to do as a ninja? It doesn't matter whether you're strong or not. In the end you still die.**_"

"It doesn't matter whether I die or not! What matters is that I served my village to the best of my ability." He knew she would reject this before he finished. Even as he said the words they rang hollow in his own mind.

"_**If you're not there to serve your village, someone else will be. So what's the point of your existence?**_"

She took a few exaggerated steps, hands behind her back and face contorted into a childlike imitation of deep thought, before turning to him again. "_**Besides, you don't even care about the village. I know the things you were thinking when you grew up. You may be fighting for your village, but you're not fighting FOR it are you?**_"

He opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't find the words. She was right; he had never really thought through why he wanted to be where he was. When he was a child, he had seen how much respect the Hokage garnered in the village and decided he wanted people to treat him like that as well. When that childish fantasy had been taken from him, he kept on the path to becoming a shinobi of the Leaf because it was the only one he could see before him. But while he didn't care about the village as a whole, there were individuals who held meaning for him.

"Fine, maybe I'm not fighting for the village as a whole. But there are people in the village who are important to me, those I would be willing to fight and die for. I was fighting for my important people when you brought me here. Put me back so I can protect them."

"_**Remember your own words,**_" she said, looking up at the roof of the cavern with one finger to her cheek as if trying to remember something. "_**I'll do whatever I can to protect them, but ultimately they're ready to lay down their lives for the sake of the mission as well.**_"

He gritted his teeth in frustration. It was like she knew him better than he did himself. The words she used mirrored and articulated the discord that had been brewing in his thoughts for the last week, ever since he met that girl.

"_**Time's running short onii-chan,**_" she reminded him while balancing herself on one leg, her arms extended on either side for balance. "_**Even if I wanted to, I can't keep you here forever.**_"

He closed his eyes, trying to think of something that could justify his existence.

One after another the words came, floating to the top of his mind as if they had been lying just beneath the surface the whole time, waiting for the right moment.

"I have to get strong. I have to fight so I can protect the dreams of those who are important to me."

"_**Their dreams?**_"

Unbidden, a series of images flashed through his mind.

When he was six he had twisted his ankle badly. Jiji had been there for him, hugging him in the hospital, telling him not to cry. They had spent the rest of the day on top of the Hokage monument, looking over the village that the old man cherished, talking about childish things as if they were the most important topics in the world. Then his first bowl of ramen. Jiji smiling at him as he took his first bite.

When he screwed up the tree walking exercise after getting almost to the top. Kurenai had rushed over to him right away. He remembered the worried look in her eyes as she checked him over for injuries before scolding him about being not careful enough.

Shino, standing to one side quietly talking to his bugs. How he could give meaning to the smallest gesture or expression, a secret language that only those who knew the reserved boy well could interpret.

Sakura, sitting on the log that first day. Declaring her little girl's fantasy of a dream with all the adult earnestness her body could muster.

The girl with the strange name. Haku. Her dream of a peaceful life with lots of friends. A dream she had shared with him.

"_**That's an interesting answer onii-chan.**_"

She was standing before him again, head cocked to one side with a smile on her face.

"Yes. I have people that are important to me," he replied with more firmness than he'd felt the entire conversation. "It's not enough that I protect them. I have to make sure they're happy too."

She clapped her hands together with a delighted expression on her face. "_**I like that answer! It makes you sound like a fairytale prince!**_"

"So… you're going to… give me back my body?" he said haltingly, trying to disguise the rising hope he felt.

"_**Yup, I liked your answer so much I'll even give you a going away present! But now…**_" she reached her arms out to him.

After a moment's hesitation, he obliged. Kneeling before her, he reached and embraced her in a hug. She wrapped her own small arms around him, laying her chin on his left shoulder and pressing her lips close to his ear to whisper.

"_**I had fun today onii-chan, we should play this game again sometime. But before you go there's one thing you need to know. You're going to see him again, and when you do you can't hesitate. You have to trust me and accept everything I give you, because if you don't you'll…**_"

The darkness fell over him once again.

* * *

Power.

He awoke to the sensation of infinite power, as if every single cell in his body were overflowing with chakra.

He had never felt so strong, so alive before. His muscles ached with the desire to rend flesh and shatter bone.

There was a crunching sound, the feeling of something brittle smashing against his fist.

He narrowed his eyes, looking through the white haze that whirled wildly around him. There was an arm, holding a body up by the neck. Another arm had just smashed its fist into the body's face.

He looked more closely and recognized that they were his arms. He was holding a body up, and he had just punched it in the face.

The free arm drew back as if by its own volition, readying itself for another strike.

He examined the body held by his other arm. It wore bulky clothing; its face was framed by long black hair and covered in a porcelain mask. One of its hands hung limply over the arm holding it up, while the other was weakly prying at the fingers around its neck. There was something familiar about the body, but he couldn't remember what.

His muscles begged for release; the tension in his cocked arm was tight as steel wire. He allowed it to go.

Cracked from top to bottom, the mask fell away. He stared at the mask's owner, and a pair of wide brown eyes stared back at him, set in a face that was a perfect picture of fear and panic.

His eyes widened to match; he realized with a start that he recognized this person. Images and sounds flashed through his mind.

'_Oh by the way, I'm a girl._'

'_Is that why you fight? Because you're supposed to?_'

He felt his fist hurtling through air. He wanted to stop it; there was some reason he didn't want to hit this person. A small gaunt voice in the back of his mind screamed for him to let go, to tear the body apart and smash it until there was nothing left.

'_I want to settle in a peaceful place, free from trouble and conflict and suffering, and make lots of friends._'

His entire body stiffened into immobility as he took control; his fist frozen a hair's breadth away from her.

Suddenly, Naruto felt more tired than he ever had before. The swirling white haze that filled his vision had disappeared, and his muscles felt as if he'd just gone through his most brutal daily training routines twice in a row without pause. The muscles in his arm burned from the exertion of holding the hunter-nin up, reminding him of his present situation.

He released his grip on her neck, allowing her to drop down to her feet even as his exhausted arm fell lifelessly to his side. She took several shaky steps backwards before falling down, watery brown eyes focused on him the entire time.

The last of his strength left him. His legs gave out and he slumped down to the ground heavily. He sat there, staring back at her with a blank face, too tired to get up or even pull the muscles in his face into some kind of expression.

* * *

Kurenai let out a small breath and allowed some of the tension in her body to dissipate as the white aura left Naruto.

The blond was sitting on the far end of the bridge and appeared completely exhausted. He didn't seem to be in any shape to fight; but Zabuza's hunter-nin partner looked to be just as much out of it. She saw with relief that Shino was alive as well, and had moved a small distance away from Naruto and the hunter-nin when the white chakra flared up. Across the bridge from her, Zabuza had not moved from the defensive posture he adopted when they first saw the white chakra flaring.

"What was that?" asked the Mist swordsman, his gaze alternating between Kurenai and the two at the end of the bridge.

"I don't know," she replied.

It was an easy enough lie to pass off, as she didn't really didn't know the details of the situation herself. It was possible that it hadn't been the Kyuubi at all; instead Naruto had just manifested some unknown Kekkei Genkai or ability. The other alternative was that it had been the Kyuubi and Naruto somehow managed to suppress it. Whichever turned out to be the right answer, Kurenai was just glad that both her students had come out of the fight with the hunter-nin and the subsequent chakra flare-up without any visible serious injuries.

"That chakra wasn't natural," Zabuza muttered, as much to himself as to Kurenai. "I haven't felt something like that in years. He's… one of them isn't he?"

"Them?" Kurenai asked, eyes narrowing.

"A Jinchuuriki. The last time I felt an aura like that was the Sanbi's container. Everyone's heard stories about the demon attacking Konoha twelve years ago. They say that the Fourth Hokage destroyed it at the cost of his own life, but is this how you really dealt with it?"

Kurenai didn't respond to the question. If she didn't want to reinforce Zabuza's suspicions it was best to refrain from replying, allowing doubts to gnaw away at his thoughts instead. Any sort of response would simply give him more information to work with.

She could exploit his suspicions without reinforcing them though.

"I have no interest in collecting your bounty," Kurenai said in an even tone, "our mission is simply to protect Tazuna-san until the bridge is complete. The balance of power has changed. We've fought each other to a draw, but now your partner has been defeated and my students will soon have recovered enough to fight again. Remember how things turned out when you took on all of us together. The smart thing to do would be to take your partner and withdraw."

Driving Zabuza away was the best strategic option, all things considered. Trying to win the fight now carried the risk of serious injury or death for her Genin, and every day she could postpone a decisive showdown with the Mist swordsman and his partner was another day for reinforcements from Konoha to arrive.

Zabuza replied with a harsh guttural laugh. "Don't look down on me just because I'm a missing-nin; even we have our own sort of pride. My loyalty may be to my client and not my home village now, but I will not abandon a mission just because things are starting to look difficult."

A new voice cut through their conversation.

"Hahaha! That's the kind of thing I like to hear, even from a worthless dog like you Zabuza. Demon of the Mist indeed, you can't even handle an old man and some children!"

Both elite Jounin turned their attention to the new arrivals. Standing on the far end of the bridge was a short man in a black business suit, smiling arrogantly like he owned the world. His right arm was in a sling while his left held an expensive looking silver-knobbed cane. Behind him were around fifty people. Most were armed with various pole weapons, but a few carried bows or katana instead.

"This is perfect though!" the businessman declared with a wave of his left arm. "Now that you and Tazuna's ninja have exhausted each other fighting, I can kill you all and save myself the expense of having to pay a missing-nin!"

"What are you talking about? We had a deal and I still intend to complete the mission," Zabuza said, his posture and attention now turned fully towards the businessman and his thugs.

"You're a greater fool than I thought Zabuza," the businessman retorted. "I never intended to pay you. And now you've given me the perfect opportunity to clean up this entire mess in one stroke!"

"Do you seriously think I will allow you to leave this place with your head for betraying me? Your numbers mean nothing to me," Zabuza growled dangerously.

The businessman laughed. "Look at you, talking big like that when you've worn yourself out fighting. Maybe when you're dead I'll take that pretty little thing of yours and keep her drugged and chained up for what she did to my arm."

Kurenai frowned slightly; the situation was rapidly spinning out of control. By the way he talked and acted, the businessman was undoubtedly Gatou. The group of henchmen standing behind him was sizeable in number, but looked to be mostly untrained thugs with a few trained fighters mixed in. They really weren't a threat for an elite Jounin of her or Zabuza's caliber even at half strength, but the Mist swordsman's reaction was the wild card that complicated everything. If Gatou's thugs started to attack she could move fast enough to protect Shino and probably Naruto as well. But doing so would expose her back to Zabuza, and also leave Sakura and Tazuna at the other end of the bridge vulnerable.

"Crimson Eyes, our fight is over. A truce for now?" Zabuza suggested, quietly enough that his voice wouldn't carry to the far end of the bridge.

She gave him the slightest of nods, and then subtly turned her body so that she could react more immediately to anything Gatou or his thugs did.

"Forget it," mumbled Gatou, before resuming in a louder voice, "Go! Kill them all!"

* * *

Naruto was so physically and mentally tired that it threatened to overwhelm him, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus on the scene unfolding before him.

He knew that he was in a bad situation. He had no idea what happened to his sword, and in his current state he'd be lucky to take down more than one or two of the thugs with taijutsu, let alone the fifty or so the short businessman had behind him. He knew Shino was somewhere behind him, and his sensei further back along the bridge, but he didn't dare turn his eyes away from the businessman and his thugs to find out how far away they were.

The girl he had met in the forest was between him and the group of thugs, but she looked like she was in worse shape than he felt. He tried to remember what her name was. He remembered calling her by name during their conversation in the forest, but as exhausted as his mind was he could only draw a blank from his still shaky memories.

The only bright spot in the whole mess was that the businessman wasn't there to reinforce her and the guy with the giant sword. For now at least, the two groups of ninja were allies of convenience.

Then the businessman gave the girl an evil leer while saying something that Naruto guessed was referring to her. It took a moment for the blond to understand why he bristled at that.

Her words had brought him back, when everything he once accepted had failed him. Her beliefs had been accepted by the strange girl in his dreams, when even he recognized how empty and hollow his sounded.

Naruto wasn't sure whether that meant she had saved his life, but he knew that he owed her a lot.

Then the short businessman gave an order. Several of the thugs armed with bows nocked arrows and began to draw.

She wasn't moving. She was staring at them with a wide-eyed expression, too shocked by the events of the last few minutes to react.

He had to help her, he owed it to her. He was the only one who could reach her in time.

His body was in motion before his mind could rationally comprehend what he was about to do.

* * *

Haku watched, transfixed, as the boy who had been trying to kill her only minutes before threw himself in front of her. Her mind vaguely registered the sound of three dull thumps from somewhere ahead.

For a moment, there was silence and stillness. For a moment, the boy stood between them and her.

She couldn't understand why he was smiling at her.

The boy's knees buckled. At first, she thought he was drifting backwards. She watched as the smile faded from the boy's face, as the light seemed to go out of his eyes. Then his head lolled forward, like a broken doll, and his body followed.

Haku watched, wide-eyed, as the boy slumped to the ground face-down, like a marionette with its strings cut.

For a moment, her world returned to silence.

And then there was pandemonium.

* * *

Kurenai was in motion as soon as the first arrow flew, speeding along one side of the bridge and passing Naruto by in a blur. She knew without looking that Zabuza was doing the same on the other side.

For now, they were allies.

She ruthlessly suppressed the part of her that wanted to go to her student. There was time later for worrying. Or for mourning.

In the moment, she was a shinobi of the Leaf. There was a threat before her, and people to protect behind her. She had a job to do.

Kurenai threw herself into Gatou's army, fists and steel and fury, accompanied by a wide-area genjutsu that crippled most of them with fear. Across from her, Zabuza tore through their ranks with broad swipes of his giant sword.

They never stood a chance; bandits, ex-samurai, runaway genin who couldn't make it as proper missing-nin. Some turned to run and were cut down in their tracks; a few raised their weapons to defend themselves and were dispatched with nearly equal ease. Most died where they stood, paralyzed by the twin specters of inevitable doom hurtling toward them.

* * *

The sound of clashing steel and dying screams brought Haku's mind crashing back to reality.

The intensity of the carnage ahead frightened even her, accustomed as she was to death from traveling with Zabuza. There was nothing she could do there.

She looked down, eyes focusing on the still form before her. Three arrows stuck out of his back at odd angles. A small pool of crimson was gathering beneath him. The boy had taken those arrows for her, and was now bleeding all over the bridge because of her. She had to do something.

Haku scrambled on hands and knees over to him, ignoring the stabs of pain every time she put weight on her injured arm. Putting a trembling hand against his neck, she was relieved to find a weak pulse. He was still alive.

She closed her eyes and took three deep breaths, trying to slow her racing heart, trying to stop her hands from trembling. Pulling a thin knife from her sleeve, she then set herself to carefully cutting the arrows out of the boy's back, trying to do as little damage as possible.

Once the arrows were removed, she tried to summon the familiar green aura into her hands, the way she had seen her mother do so long ago. She wasn't skilled enough to heal wounds like her mother had been able to, but trying something was still better than helplessly watching him bleed for her.

Green chakra burst from her hands in a wild and erratic dance, reflecting the confusion and turmoil in her mind.

Closing her eyes she breathed deeply again, forcing her breath to steady and her heartbeat to slow, doing her best to ignore the chaos around her. When she felt her chakra flow steady, she opened her eyes and began to push a constant stream of chakra into the boy's back through her hands.

"Please, don't die on me Naruto."

* * *

They reached the fleeing form of Gatou at nearly the same time, her kunai piercing his lower back and severing the spinal cord just as his oversized sword flashed through the space his neck occupied to separate head from body.

Kurenai turned to look at the trail of carnage they had left in their wake. Between Zabuza and herself all of Gatou's henchmen had been dispatched in the space of a few minutes. On her side of the bridge the thugs looked like they had simply fallen asleep, brought down as they were by precise taijutsu and kunai strikes. In contrast Zabuza's side looked more like a slaughterhouse, with blood splattered all over the bridge and most of the bodies in pieces.

She gave the Mist swordsman a questioning look. Now that their common enemy had been dealt with, the situation between them was uncertain again.

"The truce stands, unless you wish to continue," Zabuza grunted. "My employer's dead, I no longer have a reason to take the bridge builder's head."

Kurenai nodded. "Fine. Now would be a good time to check on our people."

The two elite Jounin moved back along the bridge, each keeping to one side to give the other a comfortable distance. Although there was no longer a reason to fight, it was a rare shinobi who reached their level of rank and experience without having developed a healthy, almost paranoid sense of caution.

Kurenai breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the hunter-nin hunched over Naruto's prone form, her hands pressing on his back and surrounded by a pale green aura. That meant her student wasn't dead, or at least not yet. Further along the bridge Shino had retreated to regroup with Sakura and Tazuna. She gave them a hand sign to keep their position before moving closer to check on Naruto.

Zabuza spoke first as the two elite Jounin stopped a few paces from the focus of their attention. "How is he?"

Fully immersed in controlling the flow of her chakra, Haku hadn't noticed Zabuza and Kurenai approaching. She looked up in surprise; the green aura around her hands wavering as her concentration broke. She took a few seconds to regain her focus, bringing her chakra flow back under control, before responding in a quiet voice.

"He took three arrows to the back. I can stop the bleeding and stabilize him for now, but he really needs to be taken to a doctor. There's probably been some organ damage."

Kurenai frowned at the girl's words. The best that the town could offer were folk herbal healers, nothing like the fully trained and equipped medical professionals that Naruto's situation seemed to call for. The alternative was to hire a carriage and hurry Naruto back to Konoha. Even if she could arrange for a carriage and a ferry to take it to the mainland on short notice, the journey would still take most of a day. Going that route would also mean abandoning the missions, as the terms were to protect Tazuna until the bridge was finished.

Zabuza's voice cut into her thoughts. "Haku, go with them."

The green aura wavered again. Haku quickly stopped the flow of chakra to her hands before looking up.

"Zabuza-san?"

"The boy saved your life. Stay with them tonight and do what you can for him."

"I… but…" she stammered uncertainly.

"Do it," Zabuza commanded, his voice taking on a slightly harsher tone. "Follow their instructions as you would mine."

"I… yes, Zabuza-san."

Zabuza turned to Kurenai. "Crimson Eyes, I give you my word as one of the Seven Swordsmen that she will not harm you or your people. Will you allow her to accompany you back to the bridge builder's home?"

Kurenai considered the situations for a few seconds before nodding in reply. She needed all the help she could get with Naruto at this point. Shousen Jutsu was a basic medical ninjutsu skill, but it was still far better than the kind of medical care she could get for Naruto in town. The girl would be useful in keeping Naruto stable until they could start the trip back to Konoha. Furthermore Zabuza was unusual amongst missing-nin in that he had a reputation for professional integrity. He was able to command a premium for his services because he was always true to his word and never abandoned a mission.

Unless, she supposed, his employer betrayed him and tried to have him killed to avoid having to pay his fee. But she could hardly hold that against the man.

Satisfied with Kurenai's response, Zabuza brought his hands together in a seal and disappeared off the bridge in a Shunshin.

Kurenai signaled for the rest of her team to gather on her before kneeling by the raven-haired girl.

"Is it safe to move him?"

"Give me a few minutes," Haku replied without looking up, her hands already returning to Naruto's back. "I've almost got the bleeding stopped."

"Sensei?" Sakura asked as she approached, warily eyeing the raven-haired girl the whole while.

"Haku's healing Naruto's injuries. She'll be staying with us tonight, if that's ok with you Tazuna-san?" Kurenai replied.

"Sure, I mean, of course, if you think it's alright Kurenai-san," Tazuna said in answer to her question. "But what about Zabuza?"

"Zabuza gave me his word that she won't attack us, and we could use her skill with medical ninjutsu right now. With Gatou dead now there's no longer a reason for Zabuza to target you. I feel that in this situation we can believe what he says." Kurenai didn't mention that she intended to keep a close watch on Haku regardless.

By that time Sakura had approached close enough to see Naruto's wounds, and the pink-haired girl's eyes bugged out at the sight. "Is… is Naruto going to be ok?"

Kurenai noticed that Haku's head dropped slightly at the question, as if the girl felt responsible for Naruto's condition. Mentally filing that information away for later she turned to answer her student.

"He's not going to die, but we need to get him back to Konoha so he can get proper medical treatment. Haku will do what she can to keep him stable overnight, and then I'll arrange for transportation to take him back tomorrow."

She then turned to her other student. "How badly are you hurt Shino?"

"I took a number of wounds. She wasn't aiming to kill though, and none of my injuries are life-threatening. Sakura should be able to patch me up with her first aid training."

Kurenai nodded. She had become familiar with Shino's calculated manner of speaking after working with the bug user for weeks. His deliberately crafted response was meant to reassure Sakura and Tazuna about Haku, and also to indicate that Haku's healing capabilities should be focused entirely on his far more seriously wounded teammate.

"Ok then. Haku, please get Naruto to the point where we can move him. Sakura, please look after Shino. Tazuna-san, I'd like you to get something to make a stretcher with so we can carry Naruto back to your place."

* * *

It was approaching evening by the time the group returned to Tazuna's house. They were met by a relieved Tsunami who filled them in on how Naruto had dealt with the two-ex samurai before leaving. Once she saw the blond on the stretcher, she immediately prepared the best room in the house for him to stay in. As Tazuna often traveled for work, the best room in the house turned out to be Tsunami's own room.

Kurenai asked for a second bed to be brought into the room as well. Haku had resumed applying healing chakra to Naruto as soon the blond had been laid down in bed, and the red-eyed Jounin could see that the girl was approaching chakra exhaustion. Once the second bed was set up she ordered the raven-haired girl to rest. It was a sign of just how emotionally draining the events of the day had been for her that Haku complied meekly with the order, and she was asleep and snoring lightly as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Kurenai had to admit that she was impressed by the girl's abilities. She looked to be only a year or two older than her own students, an age when most Genin started considering the possibility of taking the Chunin examination. Given how long she had kept up the Shousen Jutsu after using her Kekkei Genkai to fight first Shino and then Naruto though, her chakra reserves were easily Chunin level. Her ability to use the medical ninjutsu technique also spoke of her high level of chakra control.

On the other hand, though she was just a bit shorter than Shino, she had a surprisingly slender flame for a kunoichi. Her build made her unsuited to taijutsu combat, and Kurenai recalled how Shino had the upper hand during the bridge fight until Haku had used her ice mirror technique. Zabuza had most likely come to the same conclusion and trained her as a ranged specialist to support his own close combat prowess.

Once she was sure that the raven-haired girl was deeply asleep and wouldn't wake up for some time, she left the room to find her other students.

"Shino, Sakura, I need to talk to the two of you for a minute."

The two of them dutifully followed their sensei back to Naruto and Haku's room. Kurenai closed the door securely, and then waited for the two to seat themselves before speaking in a quiet voice.

"We can fully debrief once we're back in Konoha, but for now I'd like to get a quick summary of what happened during the bridge fight."

She turned to Shino first. He was the closest of her students and, aside from Haku, had the best view of what happened. The bug user nodded and began recounting his view of the day's events.

"I began by engaging Haku in a taijutsu fight. With the aid of coordinated attacks from my bug clone I was able to put her on the defensive. Then she unveiled her ice-based Kekkei Genkai abilities. She trapped me with a dome of twenty-one mirrors of ice. She was able to project her image onto all of them, and attack from seemingly any of them at any time. I quickly determined that she was aiming to reduce my mobility and response time with bleeding wounds and nerve strikes, in order to remove me from the fight without killing me.

Shino raised one hand to adjust his sunglasses before continuing.

"Through experimentation, I was able to deduce that she was hiding in one mirror at a time, using the other false images as a camouflage. She was able to move from one mirror to another at very high speeds, giving the appearance of attacking from all directions at once. I was unable to defeat her technique however. My bug allies were unwilling to touch the ice directly because of the cold, explosive tags did not appear to have any effect on the mirrors, and I lacked the speed necessary to intercept and physically engage her while she was traveling between mirrors."

"That was when Naruto arrived. I did not see how he managed to penetrate the ice mirror dome, but my guess is some sort of custom explosive tag larger than standard size. I relayed my findings about Haku's abilities and told him of my reduced combat capability. He suggested that I pretend to be unconscious until I was sufficiently recovered to rejoin the fight. I did as Naruto said, though I kept an eye open to observe the fight.

Shino readjusted his glasses again. Kurenai picked up on this, taking it as a sign that the boy was approaching a part of the narrative that he felt some uncertainty over.

"At first Naruto was also unable to physically engage her in the time she spent outside the mirrors, while she employed the same nonlethal tactic with him. Then he raised his hitai-at to reveal a red eye that had been hidden underneath."

Sakura's eyes widened, and she looked like she was about to say something. Kurenai cut her off with a raised hand to indicate that she should hold her questions for the moment before nodding at Shino to continue.

"I came to the conclusion that the eye gave Naruto increased visual acuity, as he was suddenly able to defend himself from Haku's senbon attacks with much greater success, and almost managed to strike her between mirrors. She came to the same conclusion as well and asked Naruto about the eye during an interlude. He did not elaborate on the eye's abilities, but did say that he wasn't well-liked in Konoha, and that if anyone knew about his eye his situation would be worse."

Once more Shino paused to readjust his sunglasses.

"Naruto finally adopted an unusual kenjutsu stance. I did not recognize its purpose at the time, but on reflection I think he was deliberately exposing an angle of attack to Haku in order to lure her to a predictable course of action. She took his bait, and this time Naruto was able to connect with a solid strike. During the ensuing exchange though, she was able to close in and land a kick against his ribs on the injured side.

"I… I could see that Naruto had suffered a serious injury. He was spitting up blood, and wheezing in a way that sounded like he couldn't breathe. I ran over to him to see what I could do to help. That's when I felt the first flare of chakra from Naruto. It grew until it shattered Haku's ice dome, and when I looked again I saw that Naruto was surrounded by a visible aura of white chakra. I… moved away so as to not get caught in whatever was happening."

Shino paused to take a breath. Kurenai noticed that he was visibly uncomfortable now. For the bug user, this was quite a change from his normally tight control over emotional displays.

"Naruto stood up again, and I saw as he did that his injuries from the fight were healing themselves right before my eyes. He grabbed Haku by the neck and began striking her. When her hunter-nin mask cracked and fell apart though, it seemed like he recognized her. He stopped mid-punch and let her go, and that's when Gatou and his men arrived."

Kurenai nodded, and then turned to her other student. "Sakura?"

"I don't… I don't really have anything to add sensei, I was too far away."

Something about the tone of Sakura's reply bothered her, but Kurenai set that thought aside for now.

"I want the two of you to listen to me carefully. I'm not sure what happened with Naruto, it's something I need to discuss with Hokage-sama when we return to Konoha. In the meanwhile, I need you two to consider all details about Naruto's involvement in the fight an S-class secret. I do not want anything about the white chakra or Naruto having a hidden red eye getting out when we return to Konoha. You both know what the potential penalties are for divulging S-class secrets. Is that clear?"

Shino gave her a quick nod, while Sakura's was slower and more hesitant.

"Good," Kurenai continued in a more relaxed tone, "now let's get something to eat and get some rest. We have a hard journey ahead of us tomorrow."

* * *

It was near midnight when Kurenai first felt the odd sensation. She had been sleeping on a chair in Naruto and Haku's room, but her finely honed instincts brought her to full wakefulness within seconds.

It took her a few more seconds to identify it. Skilled shinobi often developed a certain feeling of presence, most commonly expressed as a killing intent, which allowed them to cow civilians and weaker enemies through sheer force of willpower and personality alone. What she was feeling now was Zabuza's presence, with enough of it released to catch her attention, but also deliberately suppressed to a level that neither Tazuna's family nor her Genin could feel with their less developed senses.

She quickly checked on Naruto and Haku to make sure that the former was still stable and the latter still asleep, and then made her way out of Tazuna's house towards the forest in the back where she felt his presence most strongly. She took a few steps beyond the tree line before stopping.

"Your hunter-nin's asleep," Kurenai said to what seemed to be an ordinary section of forest. "She was pretty close to chakra exhaustion."

Zabuza dropped out of a tree ahead of her and landed on one knee. She noted that he was maintaining a distance which indicated he most likely hadn't come for a violent confrontation. Hanging over his right shoulder was a large traveling pack, though Kurenai thought that the powder blue bedroll strapped to the pack's top was an odd color choice for the Demon of the Mist.

He stood up, shrugging the pack off and letting it fall to the ground as he did so.

"It might be best this way," Zabuza said.

Kurenai cocked her head to one side, waiting for him to explain further.

"I'm asking a favor of you," he grunted. "This is everything Haku owns. I want you to take her back to Konoha with you. If your Hokage will allow it, she would make a useful addition to your ranks."

A few seconds passed in silence before Kurenai replied.

"Why?" she asked simply.

"Konoha is well-known for its love of bloodlines. You've seen how powerful hers can be, and as far as I know she's the last of her line. I found and trained her myself. There's no record of her as a shinobi of Kiri, so there shouldn't be any political problems. Trust issues aside, I don't see why Konoha wouldn't accept her."

Kurenai considered Zabuza's words. Acquiring a bloodline as potent as Haku's would be a major coup for Konoha. Especially if no other hidden villages had access to it. Even if she refused to serve Leaf, or if the Hokage deemed her too questionable to use as a shinobi, there was still value to keeping her confined in Konoha so that potentially hostile powers wouldn't have access to her abilities. There was also the fact that Haku had been closest when Naruto's chakra flared; to keep the secret of the Kyuubi from potentially getting outside Konoha it was best to take the girl back.

As for motive, it was possible that Zabuza was trying to plant an agent in Konoha. Kurenai didn't see how that would substantively benefit his position as a missing-nin though. The loyalty question was more Ibiki's department anyway. From her point of view there was no downside to taking Haku back to Konoha regardless of the girl's ultimate loyalties or usefulness. She suspected that Zabuza's reasons for asking this favor were most likely personal rather than strategic. With someone of his personality though, she doubted that she would be able to get him to acknowledge something like that.

Still, it never hurt to try.

"I'm more interested in why you want to leave her behind."

Zabuza shrugged. "Maybe I feel a fatherly affection for her and want her to have a chance at a stable life, instead of always being on the run with me. Maybe her usefulness as my tool ended when she lost a fight and then decided to risk her life healing a potential enemy without my orders. Maybe it's a combination of the two. Does it really matter?"

"I suppose not," Kurenai conceded. She hadn't expected to get much more out of the Mist swordsman.

"So will you take her?"

"What if she refuses to go?"

"Ask her about the first lesson I taught her, and then tell her that she has fulfilled hers to me."

"Fulfilled what?" Kurenai asked.

"It doesn't matter, just use those words. She will do as you tell her to."

"Fine, I'll take her back with my team to Konoha. Whatever happens beyond that is up to Hokage-sama."

"Good. Your client is safe now. I've dealt with the few henchmen Gatou didn't bring to the bridge with him, and I intend to be out of this rat-hole of a country in two hours."

"Dealt with them?"

"Wave Country won't have problems anymore. At least not from Gatou's organization."

"That was very… benevolent of you," Kurenai commented.

Zabuza laughed. The hard gravely edge of his voice reminded Kurenai of just how dangerous a predator the Demon of the Mist was.

"Benevolence has nothing to do with it. Since Gatou's no longer around I took my payment from his office and the corpses of the men he employed. Besides, I really don't want to have any of Gatou's henchmen running around trying to take revenge on me for their boss. It would get annoying."

Zabuza turned and began walking away, but stopped after several steps for a few last words.

"It was an interesting experience taking on you and your students Crimson Eyes. I hope we never meet again."

Kurenai waited until she could no longer sense Zabuza's presence before moving to examine the contents of the pack. She found several sets of clothing, a storage scroll, some senbon and kunai, and an envelope with a small stack of paper currency tucked into a side pocket. She gave some thought to taking away the weaponry and storage scroll as a precaution, but in the end decided against doing so. It was a calculated risk, not stripping Haku of weapons or securing her as a prisoner. But leaving the weapons and scroll in place was a sign of good faith that Kurenai could use to build a rapprochement with. Even if Haku decided to get hostile, Kurenai was sure that she could subdue the girl without allowing harm to come to her students.

* * *

Consciousness returned slowly to Naruto, accompanied by ever stronger throbs of pain that seemed to come from all over his body.

He opened his eyes and slowly glanced around, trying to move his neck as little as possible because of the pain. The sight that greeted him was the faint outlines of a ceiling and walls, palely illuminated by the moon's light filtered through the thin curtain of a single large window. He couldn't identify the room, but recognized the style of the ceiling boards and wall paneling.

He was back in Tazuna's house, so he must have survived the bridge fight. But why was he in such pain? Had he done something stupid?

He couldn't help but grimace as the memories flowed into his consciousness. He had jumped in front of arrows to protect someone who had been an enemy only a few minutes before. That definitely counted as stupid, and he could just imagine Kurenai-sensei scolding him about it now. As he replayed the events in his mind though, he realized he didn't regret his actions. Even now he felt it was the right thing to do, and he had come through it alive.

There was a detail about the fight that bothered Naruto though. He was sure that Haku had broken his ribs during the fight, but there wasn't any sign of that now. Slowly, carefully, Naruto brought his left hand up to move along his ribs, pressing in against bone every so often. There was pain, but it was all coming from his back. There was nothing unusual about his ribs aside from the fact that they weren't hurt at all. Even if he had been wrong about Haku kicking him in the ribs, there should still be pain from when Zabuza cracked them a week ago.

His mind went back to the conversation with the girl in his mind. She, whatever she was, had said something about fixing his body. She also said that she gave him a going away present. The first time he met her she had said the same thing, and he had come out of it with an unnatural red eye. Was it possible that the present this time had to do with healing?

Naruto closed his eyes, focusing on his back and visualizing the healing in his mind. At first there was nothing, and he felt a little foolish for thinking that he could heal himself by concentrating. A few seconds later, he felt a feeling of warmth spreading across his back. The sensation quickly built until he felt uncomfortably hot.

The blond tried to prop himself up on his arms to get some airflow across his back, but he only made it partway up before his strength gave out and he collapsed back onto the bed. By that time his back felt like it was lying in a pool of lava. He writhed around the bed helplessly; nothing he tried seemed to reduce the agonizing heat he felt.

A bloodcurdling scream ripped its way out of his throat.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Wave Country Arc proper is over at this point; all that's left is cleanup. As I wrote two chapters ago, closely following canon Wave arc was a deliberate decision so that I could find some way to plausibly keep Haku alive and Konoha-bound without losing the character's unique status as the one who creates the broad brush strokes of Naruto's way of the ninja. Now that the arc is over, I'd welcome comments on how successful this approach has been.

Most Haku goes to Konoha fics have her shunted off to the hospital. I decided, between that piece of fanon and her canon herbal knowledge, that it would not be a huge stretch to give her crappy Shousen Jutsu. Her taijutsu has been somewhat nerfed compared to canon male Haku, so I think that this is a fair tradeoff.

Poor Naruto just can't catch a break.

**Glossary/Notes:**

Hitai-ate: Forehead protector.

Onee-chan: Older sister, not necessarily in a blood related sense.

Onii-chan: Older brother, not necessarily in a blood related sense.

Sanbi: Three tails.

Senbon: Throwing needles.

Shousen Jutsu: Mystical Palm Jutsu.

4/16/10: First Upload


	7. Will I Exist in a Place Like This?

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Seven: Will I Exist in a Place Like This?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

For the second time that night Kurenai found herself unexpectedly waking from her slumber. Even before she was fully awake, her mind had registered Naruto's pained scream.

She rolled out of the chair she had been sleeping in into a defensive crouch, eyes quickly scanning around the room. She saw that Naruto was still in his bed and was panting heavily. Across the room Haku was sitting up in bed with sheets pulled to her chest, her bleary eyes showing that she had just woken as well.

Once Kurenai was sure that there was no immediate external threat she quickly moved to her student.

"Naruto? What's wrong?"

His eyelids snapped open, red and blue eyes turning to meet hers.

"My back, there's something, felt like burning."

She put her hands under his shoulders and gently lifted him up into a sitting position, and then moved behind him to inspect his wounds.

Just then the door burst open. Thinking quickly Kurenai grabbed Naruto's hitai-ate off the nightstand and pulled it down over his head to cover his left eye. She then looked up to see Shino's large frame outlined against the doorway with a hint of pink hair just visible to one side. Judging from the sound of multiple footsteps though, Tazuna and Tsunami weren't far behind.

Seeing that Naruto didn't appear to be in any immediate danger Kurenai made a quick decision. "Sakura, tell them there's nothing wrong and to go back to bed. Tell them it was a nightmare or something; say what you need to keep them from coming in here."

Kurenai didn't know what had happened with Naruto, but there was the possibility of it being related to his tenant. With everything that had happened so far concerning the blond she felt that it was best if the information was kept to as few people as possible. She couldn't keep the rest of the team out without increasing their suspicion and Haku was already too deeply involved, but there was no reason to bring Tazuna or Tsunami into the equation. She had chosen Sakura because, of her three students, the pink-haired girl had the best diplomatic skills and stood the best chance of heading the bridge builder and his daughter off without raising their suspicions.

Kurenai turned back to Naruto and began carefully cutting away the bandages wrapped around his chest. By the time she was nearly finished her other students and Haku had gathered around his bed to watch, concern over the blond temporarily overriding any sense of distrust from having been recent enemies.

When Kurenai gently peeled the last bloody section of bandage from Naruto's back, only her skill as a shinobi kept her from displaying any visible shock at the sight that greeted her. She could hear the girls' breaths hitching, and even Shino gave a small grunt of surprise.

There was blood all over Naruto's back, but beneath it there was no sign of the injuries he had sustained during the bridge fight. She put two fingers to his back and cautiously felt around the places where she remembered the arrow wounds to be. When she pressed her fingers in she felt nothing but intact flesh and undamaged bone.

"S-sensei?" Naruto asked in a wavering voice, even as he tried to turn and look at what she was doing.

"How do you feel now?" Kurenai asked in return.

"Tired. Really tired, like I used a lot of chakra, but I don't feel hurt anymore."

Kurenai turned to the raven-haired girl standing with her team. "Haku, can you come and check on Naruto?"

Haku nodded and moved behind the blond. Her thin fingers moved around Naruto's back the way Kurenai's had, gently prodding and looking for any hints of injury. She then brought a bit of chakra to her palms, lighting them up with a pale green aura, and pressed them against his back.

Finally Haku pulled her hands away and leaned back with a confused expression.

"There's nothing. There's no sign of tissue damage, and the chakra flow is normal. It's like… it's like he never got hurt."

Kurenai gave the situation some thought. Naruto seemed physically fine, so she could use this as an opportunity to get his version of what happened during the bridge fight without having to include the others. For the moment she deferred questions of just how Naruto had healed himself. It was more than likely due to his tenant, and that was something she preferred to discuss with him in private as well.

"Ok well. Naruto, let's get you cleaned up first. The three of you please stay here; we can talk once Naruto's done."

Kurenai put her arms around Naruto and helped him to his feet, and then led him through the door into the bedroom's adjoining bathroom. She deposited him in the bathtub and drew the shower curtain closed, waiting for the sound of running water to begin before speaking in a quiet voice.

"Naruto, there are some things we need to talk about. But first tell me why you protected Haku."

For a few seconds Naruto didn't speak, and she started wondering if he hadn't heard her over the sound of the water. Then his reply came in a subdued tone.

His narrative was disjointed and meandering, as if he was trying to put the pieces together in his own head while speaking. He began with his arrival on the bridge, breaching the ice mirror with an experimental tag, and the ensuing fight. She winced sympathetically when he described how he felt after Haku had kicked him in the ribs.

Naruto paused for a few seconds, and when he resumed the narrative had jumped back several days. He described his first meeting with the raven-haired girl and repeated the words she said at the time. Kurenai briefly considered whether not to admonish him for not bringing that encounter to her attention earlier, no matter how innocent it had seemed at the time. She decided against it however; he had enough to worry about without her adding that on top.

Once more the scene shifted. Naruto began describing dimly lit tunnels, but then abruptly stopped mid-sentence.

The words he used sounded very familiar to Kurenai. It took her a moment of thought before she realized that she had read them in one of the reports in the Hokage's dossier on Naruto; they were the same as the ones he used to describe the unusual dream he had just before he acquired an unnatural red eye. She decided that the blond needed some verbal reassurance.

"I know about what's inside you," she said quietly, trying to make her voice as reassuring as possible. "I don't blame you or hold you responsible for anything. You're my student and your welfare is important to me, but I need to know exactly what happened so I can figure out how to deal with it."

His silhouette on the shower curtain nodded. A few seconds later Naruto resumed his narrative, this time with noticeably more tension in his voice.

He began with the dreams he had a year ago, just before he was incarcerated for two months in ANBU headquarters. Kurenai had already read about them from the dossier, but nevertheless it was interesting to hear about them firsthand. He described his first encounter with the girl in his mind and how surreal everything seemed at the time. He then moved onto his second meeting with the girl, after he had passed out on the bridge. She could tell by the rhythm of his voice that he was straining to recall and accurately reproduce every detail of the strange encounter.

By the time Naruto stopped again he had recounted everything up to Gatou's appearance from his own perspective. Kurenai in turn filled him in on what he had missed after passing out on the bridge. She used the time while she was speaking to recover her own mental composure. The idea that it might not be the Kyuubi sealed inside Naruto shocked her. What was it that was sealed in him then? And where was the Demon Fox?

She decided to put those questions aside for now; there didn't seem to be any danger of Kyuubi, or whatever the girl in his mind actually was, getting loose in the immediate future. Instead she put her focus on the things she could deal with at present.

"So you think that this girl gave you the ability to heal yourself?" Kurenai asked.

"I think so," Naruto replied. "The first time she said something about a present I woke up with my left eye. It just makes sense, I guess."

"If you're ok with it, I'd like to test that."

"What do you mean?"

"I want to give you a small cut to see if it heals."

"Um, I guess."

Kurenai waited until he was finished and clothed before motioning for him to sit on the edge of the bathtub. Kneeling before him with a kunai, she quickly drew its blade across the back of his forearm. She watched the cut for a few seconds, but nothing seemed to be happening.

"I think I have to consciously focus on it," Naruto suggested. "When I woke up, nothing happened until I started thinking about my back."

Kurenai nodded for him to do so, and then watched as the cut sealed itself before her eyes nearly instantaneously. She ran a finger across it, wiping away the blood and revealing undamaged skin underneath.

"What do you feel when you heal like that?" she asked.

"I can feel a pull on my chakra, and I think there's as much pain as when I got hurt in the first place. When I healed this cut it was just a twinge, but before it felt like my whole back was on fire."

She stood up and moved to the sink to wash his blood off her finger and kunai.

"We should get the full extent of that tested when we get back to Konoha; we really need to know its full abilities and limitations before you try to use it in a real battle. That can wait for later though."

Kurenai turned back to Naruto, making eye contact to ensure she had his attention.

"We're going to have to tell Hokage-sama everything you just told me when we get back. Until then though, it's best if you don't tell anyone else. Given the possibilities, we need to keep things as closely guarded as possible until we're sure of what's going on. I've already ordered Shino and Sakura to consider all details about your part in the fight an S-class secret until further notice, so when we're done here just follow my lead ok?"

"Yes, sensei," Naruto replied, his voice quiet and apprehensive.

She led him out of the bathroom and back into Tsunami's bedroom, planning how to approach the coming conversation the whole while. When she had agreed to take on a genin team she thought her duties would include training her students physically and helping them with issues associated with growing up as young shinobi. Helping keep Naruto's secret from his teammates, while not even knowing exactly what that secret was herself, and then having to deal with a potential prisoner or recruit for Konoha on top of that was not what she had in mind. She had no doubt that if Anko knew how complicated things had gotten the trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin would have a front row seat with dango stick in hand, enjoying Kurenai's difficulties and laughing herself silly.

Kurenai decided to start with Naruto's situation first; she needed to get Haku's cooperation before putting the girl through the emotional upheaval that was to come.

"There are a couple things we need to discuss. First, as far as Haku or I can tell Naruto's physically fine. Whatever injuries he sustained during the bridge fight and before have healed."

"But sensei, how?" Sakura asked, glancing at Naruto. "Is it some kind of special jutsu?"

"We don't know yet, that's another thing we'll have to talk to Hokage-sama about. Naruto's never shown this kind of ability before, so it might be an unknown Kekkei Genkai that only manifests under certain conditions."

Kurenai didn't like misleading her students. In this case though she it was necessary. She thought that Shino might be perceptive enough to guess she was lying, but hoped that the bug user would keep his silence if he came to that conclusion.

"For now though," she continued, "we need to act as if Haku managed to fully heal him during the night. Since she's already shown her ability with medical ninjutsu, that explanation will seem more natural. Haku, can I get your cooperation on this?"

"I… I guess so," the raven-haired girl responded a little uncertainly.

Kurenai gave her a slight smile, feeling inwardly relieved. She had thought of several ways to coerce or force Haku's cooperation if she was unwilling or asked too many questions. The fact that the girl was being compliant made things easier.

"Good. There's another thing we need to deal with, and that's you Haku." Kurenai ended her words with a pointed look.

"Me?" the raven-haired girl asked with a surprised expression.

Kurenai turned to her bug user student. "Shino, can you please go to the other room and bring the large traveling pack back? You know which I mean."

Shino gave his sensei a slight nod before rising to do as asked. When he returned Kurenai saw the flash of recognition in Haku's eyes. The red-eyed Jounin gestured for Shino to give the pack to its owner, and then watched as the raven-haired girl rummaged through the pack to check its contents. She noticed the slight relaxing of Haku's facial expression when the girl came across the storage scroll.

"Would you mind showing me what's in that storage scroll?" Kurenai asked gently.

Haku looked up from her pack questioningly.

"It's just for my own peace of mind," the red-eyed Jounin added.

Haku nodded and unrolled the scroll, laying it out flat on the bed she had been using. Though the scroll's vellum exterior cover was in good condition, the yellowed and crackling interior layer of rice paper showed the scroll's age. Kurenai guessed that it was several decades old.

The raven-haired girl then brushed her fingertips across the scroll's trigger seal. A second later a large wooden object appeared on top of the scroll with a light puff of smoke.

Kurenai recognized it as a koto. She was familiar with the zither type musical instrument from lessons during her Chunin days, but had never seen one quite so exquisitely crafted. It was nearly as long as Haku was tall, and the surface was finished in a way that brought the undulating patterns of the wood grain vividly to life. Its thirteen strings were stretched over the instrument's slightly curved top, suspended by a series of jade bridges.

"This is really nice," Kurenai commented.

Haku ran a hand lightly over the instrument. "It was my mother's, and it's supposed to have been in the family a long time. It was the one thing she would never allow my father to touch."

"Can you play?"

"My mother taught me when I was little, and I've kept with it ever since. When you're on the road a lot, sometimes you have to create your own entertainment."

Kurenai nodded. "Thanks for showing it to us. Such a finely made instrument is a treat to see."

Haku smiled slightly without looking up as she returned the koto to its storage place within the scroll. She then rolled the scroll itself up and carefully returned it to its position in her pack.

Once Haku was finished with her belongings, Kurenai decided that it was best to approach the conversation directly.

"Zabuza came earlier in the night; I met him in the forest. He left your belongings with me and said he was leaving Wave Country. By now he'll already be gone. Before he left though, he asked me to take you back to Konoha with my team and secure a place for you as a shinobi of the Leaf."

"W-what? But… but I… but Zabuza-san…" Haku stammered, wide brown eyes moving back and forth between the room's other occupants as if she was looking for something to anchor herself to.

When Zabuza had ordered her to follow the Konoha shinobi, Haku accepted the possibility that they might take her prisoner and force her to go to Konoha with them. Zabuza had always considered Hidden Leaf the softest of the great shinobi villages, but Haku didn't think that even they would be kind enough to simply let an enemy go. Especially when that enemy was also a useful asset in keeping one of their team members alive.

She had thought that Zabuza might try to rescue her or do something that would give her an opportunity to attempt an escape herself. The idea that he might simply leave her behind had never occurred to the raven-haired girl. She would have thought that Kurenai was lying, but there was no way for the Konoha shinobi to have gotten her pack without Zabuza giving it to them.

Was Zabuza throwing her away because she lost against Naruto? Had she failed him so badly that she no longer was of any use to him?

Haku closed her eyes tightly and put her head in her hands, trying to make sense of the situation. She had been with Zabuza for nearly as long as she could remember; she couldn't imagine living any other way. He had been the foundation upon which she had built her life, and now that he was gone she felt small and helpless. Once again it felt like her entire world was falling to pieces around her.

The sensation of a hand being gently placed on her shoulder startled her out of her thoughts. Haku looked up to see that Kurenai was standing beside her, a kindly smile on the older woman's face; she had been so distracted by her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed the red-eyed Jounin approaching.

"I know that this must be difficult for you, that you're feeling a lot of uncertainty right now," Kurenai said gently. "I'm sure that Zabuza only had your interests at heart though. He said that he wanted you to have a chance at a stable and happy life, rather than always being on the run with him."

"H-he did? Zabuza-san said that?" Haku asked, a glimmer of life returning to her eyes.

Kurenai simply nodded at the girl. She chose not to repeat the other part of what Zabuza had said about his reasons; there would be nothing to gain from it at this point.

"You don't have to make up your mind right away. Now that we don't have to rush Naruto back to Konoha we'll be here a couple more days while the bridge is finished. If you want to, when dawn breaks you can try to go after Zabuza. I won't stop you if that's what you really want to do. If you're willing to give it a try though, I'm sure you'll find a place for yourself in Konoha."

"I… I'll think about it."

Kurenai gave Haku's shoulder a final reassuring squeeze before moving back to her chair.

In truth, she had no intention of letting Haku go after Zabuza if that was what the girl wanted to do. Kurenai had said it because giving Haku the illusion of freedom, and then persuading her to choose Konoha of her free will, would help build a positive rapport with the girl. If she chose differently however Kurenai was fully prepared to take whatever measures she needed to ensure that Haku ended up in Konoha anyway. The girl had already seen too much concerning Naruto. While she might not be able to put the pieces together herself, someone who knew more about Konoha's history certainly could.

"Zabuza did say something that I'm curious about though," Kurenai continued once she was seated again. "I asked what if you refused to go to Konoha with me, and his words were 'Ask her about the first lesson I taught her, and then tell her that she has fulfilled hers to me.'"

Haku's head snapped back up. "Zabuza-san said that?"

Kurenai nodded. "I'm curious as to what it means."

Haku drew her legs to her chest and put her arms around them, her eyes downcast and lackluster. It was several seconds before she replied in a subdued voice.

"I… I didn't have a good childhood. When Zabuza-san found me I was living on the streets by myself. If he hadn't taken me in I would probably have been dead by now or… worse."

She hugged her knees tightly to her chest.

"When Zabuza-san decided to train me to be useful to him, the first thing he taught me was to always fulfill my obligations, always repay my debts, no matter the cost. He never let me forget it, and said it was the most important thing he could ever teach me."

Kurenai could understand why Zabuza had emphasized that point. It was a good creed to live by in general for those who walked the path of a shinobi. In Haku's case however, the Mist swordsman could also use that lesson to subtly reinforce the girl's loyalty to him personally.

It was a tool that Kurenai could use as well.

"Is that why you decided to heal Naruto?" the red-eyed Jounin asked. "He saved your life and you felt obligated?"

"I… I guess so," the raven-haired girl replied, eyes not meeting Kurenai or her Genin team. "I don't know, I wasn't really thinking clearly at the time. It was just something I felt I had to do."

"Well, whatever reasons you did it for, I appreciate it. Thanks," Naruto said quietly.

Haku turned to with Naruto with a surprised look, then gave the blond a tentative smile.

Kurenai glanced out the room's one large window, seeing that the darkness of the night was starting to fade away. The window overlooked the small garden on the house's eastern side, and in the right lighting conditions the distant low mountain range that dominated Wave Country's eastern side was just visible through the surrounding mists. Kurenai could just see them now, their peaks illuminated with a red hue in anticipation of the coming sunrise.

She turned back to Haku. "It looks like sunrise isn't far off, so there's no point going back to bed. Instead, since we might be traveling together in the near future, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?"

She had several purposes in mind with her question. Finding out about Haku's background was the obvious goal, though Kurenai already knew a bit from Zabuza's comments during the fight on the bridge. Getting Haku to talk about herself would also make her feel more at ease with Kurenai and her students. Finally having her students hear about Haku's past would humanize the raven-haired girl for them, making her more than just an ex-enemy and perhaps causing them to treat her with more kindness and less suspicion. Both were positive steps towards convincing the girl to go willingly to Konoha.

Haku hesitated. "There's not much to tell really…"

Kurenai simply gave the girl a reassuring smile and waited. Sometimes the best response was no response.

"Well, I was born in a rural village in Water Country, on one of the small eastern islands. My father farmed a small plot of land, and my mother made some money as the village's healer."

"Did you learn how to use Shousen Jutsu from her?" Kurenai asked.

Haku nodded. "Sort of. She wasn't a ninja, but the jutsu had been passed down the family. My mother didn't actually teach me, but she told me enough about how it was done that when Zabuza-san started training me I was able to put the rest together myself."

Kurenai nodded. "Go on."

"We weren't well off. It was a poor village and everyone just barely got by. But I remember we were happy. My parents' eyes always lit up when they looked at each other, and they always made time for me. The villagers were always nice to me too. I was the only child my age in the village, and adults would give me sweets or stop to play with me."

Haku looked out the window, the corners of her mouth turned upwards in a small smile. Her eyes were unfocused, as if she were seeing memories of happier times. She allowed herself to be lost in her recollections for a minute before continuing her story.

"Everything changed when I discovered my Kekkei Genkai. I was so proud, I didn't understand at the time why my mother was so afraid. It was the only time in my life I could remember mom hitting me. She made me promise not to show anyone, but my father had already seen it."

Haku had visibly shrunk into herself now, reliving in her mind the most painful episode of her young life.

"He killed her. He brought a mob of villagers to the house, and they beat my mom to death right in front of me. They were going to kill me too, but I panicked and lost control of my ability. The house exploded with ice shards, and all the villagers were dead before I realized what had happened. I killed them all."

"I don't understand," Sakura asked with a confused tone, "why did he do it?"

Haku had put her head down to her knees with her eyes closed, and her hands were shaking slightly. Kurenai decided to answer Sakura's question herself to give the raven-haired girl a chance to regain her composure.

"Water Country has a history of civil wars. Because of Hidden Mist's remoteness from the mainland, their shinobi don't often get involved in international conflicts. Instead they get hired for internal Water Country power struggles.

"The civilian population suffered most from these wars, caught in the middle and attacked by both sides in order to deny civilian support to each other. Those with Kekkei Genkai were seen as symbols of the destruction because their abilities were the most visible. After the last war there was a bloodline purge, and they were killed off because people were afraid their existence would lead to more wars."

"That doesn't seem logical," Shino observed. "Those with bloodline limits aren't any more or less responsible for wars than those without. Ultimately those who instigated the civil wars were simply using all shinobi, bloodline or not, for their own purposes."

Kurenai shrugged. "People don't always act logically. In fact, they usually don't. If you can understand and exploit that, you can potentially gain a useful advantage over an adversary."

She turned back to Haku. "Zabuza found you after that?"

Haku nodded without looking up. "I ran away from the village and eventually ended up in one of the towns on Water Country's main island. That's where Zabuza-san found me. He took me in and trained me without knowing about my ability, and even when he found out he kept me around."

"Why didn't he put you in the academy?"

"I don't really know, Zabuza-san never said anything about it. I think… maybe even then he was thinking about rebelling against the Mizukage, and he kept me secret as a possible trump card. Then when he left Kiri I went along because I didn't have ties to anyone except him."

Kurenai glanced out the window again. The sun had fully crested the eastern mountains while Haku shared her life story, and was now bathing the countryside with the warmth of its early morning light.

She turned back to study Haku's facial expression. If she had a good sense of how the raven-haired girl was currently feeling, she just needed to apply one last gentle nudge before Haku would end up choosing Konoha of her own free will.

"I know that things must be pretty confusing right now. If you ever need anyone to talk to, about anything, you can always come to me. I promise I'll help you as much as I can," Kurenai said gently while giving Haku a warm smile.

She then addressed her students.

"It's about time to get the day started, so go and see what you can help with during morning chores. Naruto, I want you to take it easy for the next couple days, just in case. No training and nothing physically strenuous. If anything even feels odd or hurt, tell me right away. Now get going, and remember, Haku fully healed Naruto during the night."

She watched as Shino and Naruto stood and walked out of the room, followed shortly after by Haku. Sakura did not move to follow them.

Kurenai could tell that something was bothering Sakura, and had been ever since the fight on the bridge. With everything else that had been going on though she had never found a good chance to talk to her female student privately.

Now was as good a time as any, the red-eyed Jounin supposed.

"Sakura?"

The pink-haired girl kept her face turned away, not meeting her sensei's gaze. She mumbled something that Kurenai couldn't quite catch.

The Jounin moved to sit beside Sakura on the bed that Naruto had occupied.

"Sakura? What is it?"

"I don't know if I can keep doing this anymore sensei." Her tone was hesitant and dejected.

"What do you mean Sakura? You know you can come to me if you have any problems."

"It's just… it's just that I'm not a useful part of the team. Every time we get into a fight, I freeze up. In the forest, all I could do was run away. And on the bridge, I froze up and Naruto almost died. Maybe if I could have helped…"

Kurenai decided to interrupt Sakura at that point. She couldn't afford one of her students having confidence issues in the middle of a mission; that was something she could deal with more thoroughly once they returned to Konoha.

"Sakura, stop thinking like that. Not every shinobi is strong at fighting; you contribute to the team in other ways. And things turned out well enough in the end."

"But…"

"I'm going to tell you something I told Naruto. Being a ninja isn't all about fighting, that's what thugs do. Skill in combat is important and it's something I can help you improve over time. But there are other aspects to being a ninja, and this is where your strengths lie. You're the smartest member of the team and you have the best interpersonal skills. Those are valuable assets for diplomacy or information gathering type missions. Also, as far as I know no other Genin team has anything resembling a specialized medic, and that's a role you're fulfilling on this team."

"Well, but…"

"Sakura," Kurenai said forcefully, "have some faith in your own abilities. I know that Naruto and Shino don't think you're useless. Their strengths cover your weaknesses, just like your strengths cover theirs. That's how a ninja team operates."

"I… I guess so."

Kurenai could see that though the pink-haired girl accepted her words there was still some lingering doubt. The red-eyed Jounin decided to focus Sakura's energies towards a productive task for the present, so that she wouldn't have time to dwell on her doubts.

"Actually, there's something I'd like you to do that suits your abilities. I want you to try and get friendly with Haku, see if you can strike up a rapport with her."

"Why sensei?" Sakura gave her instructor a puzzled look.

"I want her to feel comfortable around us. She was closest to Naruto when his ability manifested, and until I can talk to Hokage-sama about it I'm not comfortable having that information spread. It's best if we can convince her to return to Konoha with us, and that's more likely to happen if she feels some bond of friendship with you. There's also the fact that you can ask her for pointers on medical ninjutsu; that will help you with your own goal as well."

Sakura nodded. "I'll try."

Kurenai smiled at her. "Good, that's all I ask. Now let's go downstairs and rejoin the group. If we're missing for too long they'll start wondering about us."

The red-eyed Jounin watched Sakura's retreating form as her student left the room. She had said what she needed to in order to temporarily bolster the girl's confidence, but hadn't actually addressed the root of the problem. She began putting ideas together in her head to deal with the issue once the team returned to Konoha.

* * *

Kurenai felt another presence approach Tazuna's house near the end of breakfast, but this time it was a familiar and entirely nonthreatening one.

Well, she supposed that whether this was truly nonthreatening was really in the eye of the beholder.

She moved to open the door, then stepped aside as two indistinct green blurs flew through the doorway into Tazuna's dining room.

"DOUBLE DYNAMIC ENTRY!"

Kurenai turned to find two vaguely humanoid figures crouched down on the floor before Tazuna's dining table, back to back and arms held out in bizarre ways. To her mind, they looked like poses straight out of Super Sentai television shows popular with children in Konoha. Except that the Sentai team was composed entirely of disturbingly green individuals.

Having no frame of reference by which they could understand what they were seeing, the other occupants of the house found themselves completely at a loss. Tsunami responded by shrieking and dropping her frying pan. Tazuna began choking on a mouthful of rice while Inari stared with wide eyes and a face that showed a curious mix of awe and horror. Haku was frozen in shock, chopsticks falling from lifeless fingers and clattering on the table. Sakura was in a similar state, though she had been luckier in not having anything in her hands at the time. Even Shino's eyebrows had risen nearly to his hairline.

Besides Kurenai herself, the only occupant of the room not surprised to speechlessness was Naruto.

"Lee," the blond asked uncertainly, "did you, what happened to you? Did you join a cult or something?"

Sakura turned her shocked expression at her teammate. "Naruto, you know these guys?"

"Well," Naruto replied, eye never leaving the dynamically green duo, "The shorter one's Rock Lee. He was in the academy a year ahead of us. After I got out of my coma I needed to rebuild my physical fitness, so I looked for someone to help me set up a training routine. I ended up getting help from Lee, but at the time he wasn't like… this."

"Naruto-san! My fellow traveler on the path of hard work, it is good to see that you still remember me!" Lee exclaimed with one arm thrust out in a vigorous thumbs up gesture.

"Um, yeah. So back to my question; and depending on the answer I may deny ever knowing you. Did you join a cult or something Lee? Is that why you're dressed like a miniature version of that guy?" Naruto pointed at the imposingly green man standing beside Lee.

"This is my team's Jounin instructor, Gai-sensei!"

"Your sensei? Is he making you dress like him? Is that even legal?" Naruto asked dubiously.

"You are very much mistaken, my young friend!" declared Gai in a booming voice. "Lee has chosen to adopt this attire as a symbol of his will to fan the flames of his determination into an unquenchable inferno of youth! It's through such determination that he will ultimately become a genius of hard work!"

"Uh…" Naruto started, but he was cut off by Lee's loud proclamation.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Kurenai decided that it would be prudent for her to intervene at this point, before the situation was completely sidetracked by Gai and his student's youthfulness.

"Gai, you're scaring the civilians. And was it really necessary to come in with such a flashy entrance?"

Konoha's Noble Green Beast turned to her with a gleaming smile that was simply unnatural given the early time of day.

"It's such a beautiful morning Kurenai-san, my adorable student and I couldn't help but express the burning flames of our youth with our bodies!"

Kurenai decided that she didn't want to touch Gai's words with the metaphorical ten foot pole.

"So are you the backup that I messaged for?"

"Indeed. My students and I were just returning to Konoha after a mission when we were relayed orders to come here and assist your team in dealing with an unexpectedly unyouthful villain."

"I suppose Momochi Zabuza could be considered unyouthful," Kurenai mused, "but your team's too late. We fought it out with Zabuza and his apprentice yesterday."

Gai's giant fuzzy eyebrows rose. "You and your genin team were able to defeat one of the Seven Swordsmen and his apprentice?"

"Something like that, I'll explain the details to you later. Where's the rest of your team?"

"They're a little bit behind. Unfortunately at this hour in the morning the fires of Neji and Tenten's youth have not been sufficiently stoked yet."

Even as Gai finished Kurenai could see his other two students approaching Tazuna's house. She recognized the boy immediately by his distinctive eyes. Hyuuga Neji, said to be a prodigy of a level that comes along only once every few generations, was walking with his eyes fixed straight ahead and his face plainly showing his cold disinterest in the world around him. Kurenai couldn't bring to mind the name of the girl beside him, looking around at everything with an expression that was the perfect opposite to Neji's. She vaguely recalled reading something about the girl using thrown weapons though.

Once everyone had arrived and introductions were completed Kurenai pulled Gai aside to fill him in on how the mission had gone so far. The red-eyed Jounin deliberately omitted much of Naruto's involvement, trusting Gai to not second guess her in the matter due to his sense of professionalism. She only told him that she needed to return to Konoha as soon as possible to get Naruto checked out medically, and to discuss certain things with the Hokage.

"I know it's unusual," Kurenai continued, "but if we temporarily switch teams I could take Naruto and Haku with your Genin back to Konoha right away. Meanwhile you could stay with Shino and Sakura until the bridge is built to fulfill the terms of the contract."

Gai rubbed his chin thoughtfully. What Kurenai was asking of him certainly was an unorthodox solution to her problem, though there was solid logic behind it.

"How about this Kurenai-san," Gai finally said, "we'll simply completely switch roles. I'll stay behind with my students while you take your team and Haku-san back to Konoha."

"That wouldn't be fair to your team though Gai. You're just returning from a mission right? They shouldn't have to stay in the field to complete my team's mission."

"Don't worry about that," Gai assured her. "Had you not overcome the villainous Zabuza before we arrived, we would be staying here anyway. Helping with bridge building will be good training for Lee. And it would be a good experience for young Neji to be exposed to ways of living beyond what he normally sees as part of the prestigious Hyuuga clan."

"If you're really sure about it Gai," Kurenai said.

"Of course, it will be no problem!" Gai said the last words with vigor, emphasizing them with the Nice Guy Pose, thumb extended and teeth flashing.

* * *

Team Eight departed from Tazuna's house shortly after lunch. As Kurenai had expected, in the end Haku chose to accompany her team back to Konoha.

At the beginning of the journey the raven-haired girl had been visibly depressed. Kurenai could empathize with her feelings; she had suddenly been uprooted from everything she had known before and was now walking towards an uncertain future in a village she knew nothing about.

As Kurenai had suggested, Sakura took the lead in befriending Haku during the journey. The pink-haired kunoichi asked the taller girl about places she had visited with Zabuza, regaled her with descriptions of Konoha and its people, engaged her in idle chatter about clothing or music, and otherwise did what she could to keep Haku from dwelling on her depression. Shino offered the occasional comment as well, while Naruto stayed mostly silent during the trip.

Sakura's efforts eventually began to have an effect. As the sun approached the western horizon and the shadows around them lengthened, Haku's initially polite but curt acknowledgements of the other girl's words had grown to more relaxed and natural responses, and even occasionally questions as Haku asked about certain aspects of Konoha that interested her. By the time they stopped to camp for the night, Sakura had convinced Haku to begin teaching her the basics of Shousen Jutsu.

Team Eight plus Haku broke camp just past dawn the next morning, foregoing breakfast at camp in anticipation of getting a proper meal once they were back in Konoha. As the sun approached the apex of its arc across the sky they found themselves standing before the village's large eastern gate. Kurenai moved ahead and flashed her ID card and mission orders at the Chunin gate guards.

"Yuuhi Kurenai and Genin team returning from a mission, plus one foreign shinobi. We need to see Hokage-sama right away. She needs to be present as well, I'll vouch for her," she said as she briefly tilted her head to indicate Haku.

Allowing an unknown foreign shinobi to meet with the Hokage was a major security concern, and it would not be allowed at all were it not one of Konoha's few elite Jounin making the request. Even so, Kurenai knew that there would be numerous ANBU shadowing her group the second they stepped through the gate.

"Just give me a few minutes here Yuuhi-san, there seems to be some discrepancy with the paperwork," one of the Chunin said, even as another sped away towards the center of the village.

Kurenai simply nodded and moved closer to look over the paperwork with the Chunin. In truth, this was just a delaying tactic to give the ANBU time to set up an unobtrusive escort detail.

A few minutes later the Chunin handed the papers back to her. "I'm sorry Yuuhi-san; that was my mistake. It looks like everything's in order after all. You may proceed directly to the Hokage's office with your team and guest."

Kurenai motioned for Haku and her Genin team to follow, and they stepped in line behind her as she walked through the gate and onto the main thoroughfare that led to the Hokage Tower. Now that they were home and nearly finished with the mission, Kurenai could see that there was new energy in the way Shino and Sakura moved. As carefully controlled as his actions normally were, Shino still revealed his happiness at finally being home in the way he stood a little straighter than before. Sakura was chattering animatedly, pointing out shops and other Konoha landmarks to Haku as they passed. In turn the taller girl was looking at everything with an expression approaching wonder. As missing-nin typically avoided large concentrations of people to reduce the possibility of someone recognizing them, Kurenai supposed that a busy village like Konoha was quite a sight for Haku.

The only one who didn't look entirely happy be back in Konoha was Naruto, though Kurenai could understand his feelings. They had put off discussing the implications of what had happened on the bridge. Now that they were about to report to the Hokage though, it couldn't be avoided any longer.

It did not take long for them reach the Hokage Tower, where they were immediately waved through by the Chunin on guard duty. As she led Haku and her team up through the tower she once more mentally reviewed the words she would use in reporting the mission. This was far from the first time she had been on a mission that warranted a direct report to the Hokage, but this was her first C-rank as a Jounin instructor. Given just how complicated things had turned out, she wanted to be as precise in her wording as possible at every stage of her report.

* * *

"… then Gai and I decided it would be best if I returned to Konoha right away with my team and Haku, while he stayed behind with his team to finish the mission."

Sarutobi Hiruzen allowed a minute to pass in silence after Kurenai finished reporting on Team Eight's mission, using it to study the faces of the people assembled in his office.

The team's Jounin instructor kept her face carefully neutral, a skill she had honed through years of practice and experience. The Aburame boy was as reserved with his expressions as the rest of his clan, though Sarutobi had enough experience dealing with the bug users to see hints of impatience. The Haruno girl, on the other hand, was as terrible at hiding her emotions as the bug user was good at it. She was tired, nervous, and… something else he couldn't quite identify. He decided to ask Kurenai about it later.

He had taken note of Kurenai's vagueness when it came to Naruto's role in the second fight between Team Eight and Zabuza. He chose not to bring notice to it at the time, though seeing the way the blond was acting now he could venture a guess. Throughout the entire briefing Naruto had been unnaturally subdued. His eyes were focused on a spot on the floor near the Hokage's desk, and he had not once looked up to make eye contact. Naruto's lips were drawn into a thin line, and though he tried to hide it Sarutobi could see the apprehension in his face.

Two possibilities came immediately to the Hokage's mind. The first was that Naruto had somehow failed catastrophically or committed a large enough mistake for his instructor to harshly rebuke him, and he was now questioning whether he had a future as a shinobi of the Leaf at all. That struck Sarutobi as unlikely though; he didn't think Kurenai was the sort to put down her charges like that without then trying to build them back up.

The other likely possibility was one he really didn't want to deal with.

The Hokage decided to deal with Haku first, turning from Naruto to study the girl. Though she hid it better, he could tell that she was even more nervous than the Haruno girl. It was an understandable reaction; she was standing before someone who literally had the power of life and death over her. As a former enemy nin, there were certain hidden villages where she would immediately find herself imprisoned and tortured, with execution being one of the more preferable options afterwards.

Konoha's open and accepting policy towards Kekkei Genkai users was one of the reasons it had grown strong though. As the last survivor of such a potentially powerful bloodline, Haku would be a valuable addition to Konoha's forces. But there was always the issue of trust.

"Your name is Haku right?" Sarutobi asked using his best grandfatherly tone.

The raven-haired girl nodded nervously. "Y-yes, Hokage-sama."

"What's your impression of Konoha so far?"

"It's… different. I only saw a little bit coming here, but the streets are so colorful and lively. It's not like what I remember of Kiri."

Sarutobi smiled at her. "Would you like to stay here, or would you like to return to Zabuza? You've already done us a service by healing one of our wounded. If you wanted I could arrange for you to be reunited with Zabuza. It wouldn't be very difficult to track him down with Konoha's intelligence network."

The Hokage saw that her eyes briefly lit up before her expression settled. "I… I think I should stay. Zabuza-san wanted me to find a place for myself here."

Sarutobi considered Haku's response a small point in her favor. Showing any hint of attachment to her old life made her less desirable for Leaf. On the other hand, it was that bit of hesitation which made it less likely that she was a plant trying to infiltrate the village.

"I'm sure you won't have any difficulty finding a place in Konoha for yourself. Now if you would, please follow Shiranui-kun," the Hokage waved his hand to indicate the bandana-wearing Tokubetsu Jounin standing by the door with a senbon in his mouth, "he'll take you to be debriefed. It's a routine process."

Haku bowed deeply to the Hokage before turning to follow the Tokubetsu Jounin out the door. Once he was sure that they were out of earshot, Sarutobi turned to the other shinobi guarding the door.

"Sarugaku-kun, please go to Ibiki and tell him to use a soft approach in interrogating her. This one may be useful to us in the future."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," the Chunin replied before bowing and hurrying out of the office.

Sarutobi turned back to Team Eight, still assembled before him. "Your mission pay will be deposited in your accounts by the end of the day, and I would like to personally commend each of you for successfully carrying this mission out despite the unexpectedly difficult odds. Now, if there's nothing else you're all dismissed."

Kurenai bowed to the Hokage with her students following shortly after, though Naruto's bow was stiff and unnatural. She turned to her students as she straightened her posture.

"You guys can go now. Take the next couple days off to rest and catch up with your lives. I'll contact you when I want to hold team meetings again."

The red-eyed Jounin made no move to leave and put her hand on Naruto's shoulder to indicate that he should stay as well. Sakura hesitated and gave her sensei a curious look, but Shino grabbed her by the elbow and guided the pink-haired girl out of the Hokage's office.

Sarutobi counted out several seconds after his office door closed once more before speaking again. "I presume that there's more we need to talk about?"

"Yes sir, there was something I didn't feel comfortable discussing in front of Haku and the rest of Team Eight."

The Hokage studied Kurenai's expression for several seconds, noting the slight narrowing of the eyes and tightening of the lips that told him of her unease. Finally he gave several hand signals that sent the hidden ANBU guarding his office away and activated the room's privacy seals. The red-eyed Jounin waited for him to finish before motioning for Naruto to begin retelling the events of the mission from his perspective.

As Naruto spoke the Hokage felt a throbbing pressure build in his head, somewhere between his eyes. By the time the blond had finished and silence once again fell over the office Sarutobi was leaned back in his chair with his hands rubbing at his temples, not bothering to hide his tired expression. After a few seconds of rubbing he gave up and reached for his pipe instead, hoping that the soothing tobacco flavor could at least take the edge off his headache.

Once he had methodically filled the bowl of his pipe, he lit it and took a long pull before speaking.

"There are two possibilities underlying all of this. The first is that the girl you met in your… vision I suppose, is the Kyuubi and it was lying to you. The other alternative is that she didn't lie, and is really something else."

Sarutobi supposed a third possibility existed, that all of Team Eight and Haku shared a communal mass delusion and none of the extraordinary events on the bridge actually occurred. That would require deactivating an elite Jounin and three promising Genin for some very thorough psychiatric evaluation. But that was still preferable to either of the other alternatives. He quickly dismissed the idea as absurd wishful thinking however.

"If it's the Kyuubi, why would she lie?" Naruto asked.

"It's a demon," the Hokage replied. "We can't assume that it has human motives or thought patterns. It may have some long-term goal we have no idea of, or it may simply be doing it for its own amusement."

Sarutobi lightly tapped his pipe to shift the tobacco around in the bowl and took another long pull before speaking again. "I think the alternative is more likely though, with the way the two of you described the chakra flare."

"If it's not the Kyuubi, then…"

Sarutobi finished Kurenai's sentence even as the thought came to her mind.

"The shinigami. There were only three mystical creatures of great power on the battlefield that night, the Kyuubi, the shinigami, and Gamabunta. We know that Gamabunta hasn't been sealed away, so if it's not the Kyuubi then there's only one alternative left."

Naruto turned a questioning expression to the Hokage. "Gamabunta?"

"The boss frog summon," Sarutobi explained. "The Fourth was one of the holders of the frog summoning contract, and he used Gamabunta as a distraction until he could complete the summoning jutsu for the shinigami."

The Hokage paused to take another pull from his pipe.

"The Fourth's original plan was to first use an S-rank technique called Shiki Fuujin to summon a shinigami in order to tear out the Kyuubi's essence from its physical shell. Then he was to use Shishou Fuuin to seal it inside of your body Naruto. He was worried that Shishou Fuuin wouldn't be able to hold the Demon Fox's chakra though.

"As possibly the greatest seal master that Konoha ever produced, he eventually chose to use an original seal design that he named Tensa Fuuin. It's so complex that none of Konoha's regular seal experts were able to tell me much of its working. Even Jiraiya of the Sannin, the Fourth's teacher and currently one of the most skilled seal masters in the elemental nations, wasn't able to fully decipher the workings of the seal when he saw it."

"Tensa Fuuin, Heavenly Chains Seal," Naruto repeated to himself.

The blond then looked up at the Hokage with a spark of understanding in his eyes. "The girl, shinigami, whatever, she knew the whole time."

"What do you mean Naruto?"

"When we fought Zabuza in the forest he asked me what my sword's name was. I had never thought about something like that, because it seemed odd to name a wooden sword I made myself. When I gave it a little thought though, the name Tensa Kyokotsu came to my mind, like she was sending it to me. And then there's the web of chains with the seal stuck on it in the cavern in my dreams."

Sarutobi leaned forward in his chair and steepled his fingers together as he gave the matter some thought thought. "Heavenly Chains, Crazy Bones, combining the name of the seal and a description of what's locked away inside your mind. It makes sense. But the girl is a problem though; she's not sealed away behind the web of chains."

"She said that the bone thing was her other self, maybe she's part of the shinigami?" Naruto suggested.

Sarutobi nodded once.

"That's what I was thinking. The shinobi who were close enough to have seen the Fourth's jutsu described the shinigami as some kind of large bone creature. We really don't know anything about them, what they are or how they work. There are a few very high level shinobi techniques that use them or their powers, and there are ancient mythical stories of people meeting or even becoming shinigami. It might be that those myths are true. The girl could have gone through something like that, and one of the effects of the sealing was to separate her two halves."

The Hokage paused for a moment before adding, "Of course, in their own way shinigami are just as alien and inhuman as the Kyuubi, so we really can't be sure of anything. There's also the fact that Tensa Fuuin wasn't intended for the shinigami at all. We don't know what effect the seal actually had."

"What about the Kyuubi?" Kurenai asked.

Sarutobi shook his head.

"Shiki Fuujin's purpose is to tear a human's soul out and capture it within the shinigami. The Fourth added the second sealing step because he believed that the Kyuubi would be able to escape from that eventually. It's possible that the Kyuubi is currently sealed within the shinigami, even as the shinigami itself is sealed within Naruto. The Kyuubi could also have been destroyed during the sealing, its physical form at least. Perhaps there's enough of it with the shinigami that it's unable to reform itself. We're in completely uncharted territory with this. The Kyuubi hasn't been sighted anywhere in the last twelve years though, so I feel we can put that problem aside to deal with the more immediate one."

The Hokage leaned back once again, taking one final long pull from his pipe before upending the bowl and dumping its contents into the ashtray on one side of his desk. Though he knew it was necessary, he wasn't looking forward to saying the words forming in his mind. He drew out the act of refilling his pipe, carefully packing the tobacco, taking his time as a welcome delay of the inevitable.

Finally the pipe was filled to his satisfaction. Sarutobi gave his pipe one last longing look before putting it aside with a sigh.

"First, I want the two of you to understand that none of what we just discussed can leave this room. I'm officially classifying it as an S-class secret." The Hokage punctuated his words with sharp stares at each of the two other occupants of his office.

Naruto nodded solemnly, but Kurenai spoke up.

"Hokage-sama, I think it might be a prudent idea to include Anko and the other members of Team Eight since they interact with Naruto on a regular basis; I've already told Shino and Sakura to keep everything about his role in the fight confidential. Haku as well, if she proves trustworthy. They witnessed the situation firsthand, and it would be more suspicious if we didn't give them some kind of explanation."

Sarutobi considered her suggestion for a few moments before nodding.

"Very well, that's reasonable. I'll leave the final decision up to the two of you. For everyone else though stick to the established story of the Kyuubi being sealed inside of Naruto. If possible, don't refer to the Kyuubi at all. We can pass off the healing ability as an unknown Kekkei Genkai, and if word doesn't spread about how the mission went we can bypass having to explain the chakra flare event completely.

"Next, I'm putting Team Eight on probation until further notice."

Naruto cut in, with his tone tightly controlled. "It's because of what happened with me isn't it? You need to make sure I'm safe. Like before."

Sarutobi gave his surrogate grandchild a sad smile. "I'm sorry Naruto, but as Hokage I need to put the safety of the village first. I wish there were another way, but I have to be sure."

Naruto nodded, the downcast expression on his face carefully restrained.

"I understand. I… I'll go to Ibiki myself. You don't have to send an escort Jiji."

Kurenai didn't know what else to do, so she put her hand on the blond's shoulder and gently squeezed in what she hoped was a comforting way. When he turned to her, the red-eyed Jounin gave Naruto a smile of her own.

"It'll be ok Naruto. It'll be over in no time and your teammates and I will be waiting for you."

Naruto nodded once more before turning and leaving the Hokage's office.

Sarutobi felt conflicting emotions flowing through him as he watched Naruto's retreating form. His heart was heavy at having to once again put Naruto through interrogation and medical examination for events that were entirely beyond the blond's control. On the other hand, he felt pride at the way the boy accepted what was necessary and walked towards it of his own free will. Naruto had endured more than what anyone of his age should be asked, and had emerged from it better than anyone had a right to expect.

Sarutobi closed his eyes, allowing his mind to linger briefly on one thought even as the image of his successor as Hokage came to the surface.

_You would be proud of him, Minato._

When the Hokage opened his eyes again, he found Team Eight's Jounin instructor still standing before him.

"Is there still more to the mission?" Sarutobi asked.

"No Hokage-sama, but there's something else, and I thought I could take the opportunity to bring it up with you."

Sarutobi studied the kunoichi standing before him. With her being one of Konoha's few elite Jounin and also being the village's foremost expert on genjutsu, he had interacted with Kurenai enough through mission briefings and other meetings that the aged Hokage felt he had a good grasp of her personality. She was acting very uncharacteristically now, with slight shifts in body posture and facial expression betraying her nervousness to Sarutobi's experienced eyes.

He decided to broach the question directly rather than spend time trying to puzzle it out on his own. "What's on your mind Kurenai-kun?"

"Well, I have some concerns with my team. I've thought up a number of steps I could take to address them, but they're highly unorthodox. I don't know if I should be considering them at all. I also have some ideas about how to deal with Haku as well, if you decide that she's useful to Konoha as a shinobi that is."

The Hokage smiled at Kurenai encouragingly. "I don't have anything pressing on my schedule, so feel free to lay out your ideas. Perhaps, in dealing with such a unique situation, unorthodox solutions are what we need."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Naruto has his enhanced healing back. It's much faster and more effective than canon though; he was able to completely heal some very serious wounds in the space of a few seconds. The cost is chakra and proportional pain as the tissue in his body pulls itself together unnaturally, and the fact that he has to be conscious and able to focus on his injuries in order to heal them.

In canon, besides Kakashi the only people who were in a position to see or feel Naruto losing control with Kyuubi chakra for the first time either died or were unconscious. That was a neat way for Kishimoto to avoid having to deal with the complications at the time. Naruto isn't so lucky here though. Those complications are going to have to be dealt with.

Haku's trust issue is something that needs to be dealt with as well; it's unrealistic for her to simply walk into Konoha and be accepted as a shinobi of the Leaf with no questions asked. Like the Wave arc, I'm looking to integrate Haku into Konoha in a somewhat realistic way. After all, Sarutobi did not get to where he is by being naïve and trusting.

**Glossary/Notes:**

Shiki Fuujin: Dead Demon Consuming Seal.

Shishou Fuuin: Four Corners Seal.

Super Sentai: Literally, Super Fighting Squadron. Power Rangers sort of show.

Tensa Fuuin: Heavenly Chains Seal.

4/23/10: First Upload


	8. If Someone Like Me Can Change

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Eight: If Someone Like Me Can Change

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

On the first day after Team Eight's return to Konoha Shino left the Aburame compound at the edge of Konoha at precisely nine in the morning. He quickly made his way to the food market at the center of the village, choosing from experience the best side alleys to follow in order to avoid Konoha's morning merchant traffic. Once there he settled in a shaded alcove, passing time by watching a cloth merchant on the opposite side of the street set up his daily outdoor display.

His wait did not last long; only a few minutes had passed when he spotted Sakura's distinctive head of pink hair bobbing its way through the busy market. The bug-user left the alcove and deftly weaved his way through the bustling crowds until he was directly behind his teammate. He then followed her for a few steps before making his presence known in his most casual tone of voice.

"Hey."

The pink-haired girl whirled around with wide eyes, mouth open in surprise and one hand clutched to her chest.

"How do you always do that?"

Shino shrugged. "Breakfast first?"

"Sure," Sakura replied.

The pair made their way to one of the market's food stands. Shino ordered a large plate of yakitori for himself. Sakura settled for miso soup and rice along with a small dish of pickled vegetables, plus one of Shino's skewers of grilled chicken.

With breakfast out of the way the pair quickly made their way to Konoha's public library. Once there they asked the librarian on duty to see a list of available private study rooms. After a few moments of thought Shino deliberately chose one in the modern poetry annex, knowing that it would give them the greatest degree of privacy of all the available rooms. Nevertheless he still took the time to place several pickets with his bugs for advanced warning if anyone approached the room.

Sakura waited until Shino closed and locked the study room's door before asking, "So how should we do this?"

"I think it might be prudent to first lay out everything we know about him."

Sakura began counting facts off on her fingers as she recited them.

"He's an orphan. He entered the academy at the same time we did, but during our second year there was some kind of incident and he was hospitalized. He came back at the beginning of third year missing one eye, but then was hospitalized again near the end for some reason. He was put on a Genin team with us, and during your fight with Haku we found out he has a red eye where he should be missing one altogether. He also has some way of healing himself."

Sakura paused for a few seconds before turning her eyes to Shino and speaking again.

"Do you remember our academy graduation exams? In the taijutsu part Sasuke pulled off his headband at the beginning. I remember he spent the rest of the fight covering his face with one hand. I always thought that was odd, but it makes sense now."

Shino nodded. "I was engaged in my own test at the time, but I recall hearing about it. He's clearly gone to great lengths to conceal the eye. During the fight with Haku he said he wasn't well-liked in Konoha, and that if the existence of the eye were known people would treat him worse. Since being put on the same team as him, I've noticed that many villagers look at him in a different way than they do us."

"But why though?" Sakura asked. "I remember my mom telling me not to play with him when I was little. It can't be because he's an orphan. I remember Shou-chan from the academy was an orphan too, and mom didn't say anything about her. Just Naruto."

"I don't know. Do you know anything about his parentage?"

The pink-haired girl shook her head. "He's never said anything about them, and I get the feeling he may not know who they were at all. There are a number of orphans with unknown backgrounds around our generation because of the Kyuubi attack."

"We seem to be at an impasse then. I suggest that we try to find out more about his past before we make any further conjectures."

"That's a good idea. I'll head to the Hall of Records and see if I can dig anything up. I might be able to talk them into letting me see some documents or something. What about you?"

Shino gave the question some thought before responding. "I think I'll head for the nin history section of the library. If his healing ability is a Kekkei Genkai, there might be some historical records of some clan in the past with that ability."

"Ok, meet back here in three hours?" Sakura asked.

Shino nodded.

* * *

Sakura looked up as the study room door opened exactly three hours after she and Shino left to follow their separate research paths. After weeks of getting to know him, she had learned that her bug-user teammate was remarkably punctual with everything he did.

Shino nodded at her as he entered the room. She waited until he had locked the door and seated himself before asking, "How did it go?"

"Nothing particularly useful," the bug-user replied. "Though absence of evidence is not absolute evidence of absence, there are no records of any Konoha clan that have similar bloodline healing abilities. I also tried searching for a clan based on his last name as well. I was able to find out that Uzumaki is a common family name from the former Whirlpool Country, but nothing beyond that."

"So Naruto's probably the child of one of the refugees from Whirlpool after it was destroyed?"

"Most likely, but that doesn't explain the village's animosity towards him. Whatever his parentage Naruto himself was definitely born in Konoha. As an orphan with no knowledge of his parents, there would be no reason to carry any animosity towards them to their child."

Shino shrugged before continuing. "What about you? Did you find anything relevant?"

Sakura pulled out a small notepad from her hip pouch and tossed it on the table. "I talked them into letting me see some of Naruto's records, but there really wasn't much that we didn't already know. There was one interesting thing though. You know how orphans no longer living in an orphanage are given a stipend from the civilian village council? I found out that Naruto's stipend comes from the Hokage's office instead."

"Not especially helpful," Shino noted, "but it does confirm our suspicion that there's something unusual about him."

The bug-user picked up Sakura's notepad and read through the list of Naruto-related facts that she had compiled. There were the standard items such as birth date, address, academy entry and graduation dates, as well as a few other things that Shino didn't find particularly relevant. He flipped the page and suppressed an urge to smile at her doodle of a super deformed manga style Hokage. Evidently there really hadn't been much information to be gleaned from the Hall of Records.

Shino felt a flash of recognition in the back of his mind, but couldn't identify the exact source. He turned the page back and began studying the few facts Sakura had manage to compile in more detail.

Sakura was startled by the sudden burst of intensity she felt coming from across the table. She looked up to find that Shino had turned her notepad to face her with his finger pointing at the top bullet point. The pink-haired girl couldn't see his eyes through the dark sunglasses, but she was sure that they were boring into her intently.

"His birthday is October 10. That was the day the Kyuubi attacked, but I don't see why being born on the same day would make the villagers hate him. There are others who were born on the same day and they're treated normally, and…"

Her voice trailed off as the pieces of the puzzle clicked into place in her mind. Her mouth kept moving of its own accord, but a minute passed before she found her voice again.

"No, it can't be, the history books, the academy teachers said…"

"What if the history books and our teachers deliberately misled us?" Shino asked.

"But… but why?"

Shino leaned back in his chair and angled his head up to face the ceiling, not bothering to hide the uncertainty he felt.

"The adult villagers evidently know, judging by the way they look at Naruto. I can only guess that the knowledge was deliberately withheld from our generation to prevent it from further spreading."

A minute passed in silence before Sakura spoke again. "Do you think sensei knows?"

"She must. She would have been old enough when the Kyuubi attacked, and in any case it would be irresponsible for Hokage-sama to put Naruto on her team without her knowing about this."

"What should we do then?"

Shino simply shrugged; he didn't know how to answer Sakura's question. Instead he closed his eyes and began re-examining his own feelings about his blond teammate.

* * *

After Team Eight's return from Wave Country, four days passed before Kurenai found time to visit her female student's house.

She rapped her knuckles on the door lightly and took half a step back to wait. Several seconds later the door opened to reveal a surprised-looking Sakura.

"Sensei?"

Kurenai picked up on the slight tremor in her student's tone. "Sakura, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing, I… I just didn't sleep well last night."

The red-eyed Jounin was almost certain that the answer was an evasion, but decided to let the matter drop for the moment. She had more important matters to deal with.

"There's something I'd like to discuss with you Sakura. Would you mind if we talked inside?"

"Oh, sure. My parents are out of town for a couple days, so it's just me in the house."

Sakura stepped to one side to allow her sensei into the house. Once the pink-haired kunoichi had closed and locked the front door, she led Kurenai to the kitchen.

"Tea? We have Tamaryoku and Tekkannon."

"Sure, either one's fine."

The red-eyed Jounin used the ensuing silence while Sakura bustled about making tea to take in her surroundings. The Haruno house was tastefully decorated, with the predominant colors being beige and pale lavender. The furnishings spoke of the family's civilian background; there was nothing at all to indicate that an active duty ninja lived on the premises.

A series of photos hung in the hallway that led from the front door to the kitchen. They depicted the family at various points in time, with the first showing Sakura as a small child and the last around the time of her academy graduation. Kurenai noted that her student had inherited her distinctive hair color from her mother, though the elder Haruno wore her hair in a tight bun.

"Tea's ready," Sakura called out from the kitchen.

Kurenai returned to the kitchen and sat where Sakura indicated, accepting her mug of tea with a smile and a nod of thanks.

Sakura moved to the opposite side of the kitchen table and sat down with her own mug of tea. "So, um, what do you want to talk about sensei?"

Once again Kurenai decided to set aside the odd tone she detected in her student's words. This conversation was going to be difficult enough by itself.

"Sakura, how much did Haku teach you about Shousen Jutsu?"

"Well, she told me what she knew about the theory and showed me how to focus the chakra to my palms. I can kind of get a little bit of green aura, but it's not stable and there isn't enough to for healing anyway."

Kurenai sipped at her tea thoughtfully. She hadn't expected Sakura to be able to produce anything visible yet, but this might make things easier.

"Do you remember what we discussed the morning we left Tazuna-san's house, after the rest of the team and Haku left the room?"

"Um, yeah," Sakura answered hesitantly.

The red-eyed Jounin decided to get straight to the point. "Sakura, I'm here to offer you a position in the next medical ninjutsu training group. Their schedule starts in three weeks."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise, but Kurenai held up a hand before the pink-haired girl could say anything.

"There's a catch though. This is full time medical training; you would have to pull out of Team Eight."

Sakura's expression rapidly changed from surprised joy to confusion and alarm. "But sensei…"

Kurenai waved her hand to cut her student off again.

"Before I say anything more, I want you to understand that this is entirely your choice; that I'm not trying to push you in one direction or another. I'm going to lay out the facts for you as I see them, but the choice is yours. Whichever path you decide to choose, you will have my full support. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The pink-haired kunoichi slowly nodded.

"Good."

Kurenai took another slow sip of her tea, using the action to buy a few seconds of delay before continuing.

"I looked into this to give you an alternative to the life of a ninja. The hospital chief of medicine, Sanzenin-sensei, was impressed by your interest in medical ninjutsu and level of chakra control. You're not quite at the level they expect for entry into full-time medical ninjutsu study, as candidates are typically Chunin rank when they switch over. Sanzenin-sensei has said though that he would be willing to personally train you until the beginning of the session in order to make sure your skills are up to par. The fact that you can already start producing the beginning of a Shousen Jutsu will help."

"Sensei, are you… are you saying I'm not good enough to be a ninja?" Sakura asked hesitantly.

"I'm not saying that at all," the Jounin instructor replied. "You brought up the fact that you couldn't help but freeze up during the Wave mission. That's a problem we can work through, and you can be a successful kunoichi once you overcome it. This is just another way you can choose to develop your skills."

"B-but…"

"Sakura, not everyone's suited for the life of a ninja, and there's no shame in realizing that. If Konoha were nothing but shinobi it would collapse right away, as none of the tasks that people in other professions deal with would get done. Although the role's not as flashy or glamorous, medical ninjutsu specialists are as vital to the village's success as the shinobi.

"If you look at it another way, anyone who can control their chakra to some extent and has passed academy testing can serve Konoha in the field as a ninja, while only a small percentage of those have the required control to pursue the medic-nin path. In that sense medical ninjutsu specialists are a rarer and more valuable resource."

"So," Sakura began, with eyes downcast and one finger tracing the rim of her mug, "you think I can be successful in medical ninjutsu?"

"I'm sure of it," the red-eyed Jounin said firmly. "I'm just as sure though that with enough time we can overcome your problem of freezing during fights."

Sakura looked up, and for the first time since she broached the topic Kurenai saw a bit of life in the girl's eyes.

"But what about the team sensei?"

"I've spoken with Hokage-sama, and he's agreed to put Haku on Team Eight on a probationary basis if you choose to take up Sanzenin-sensei's offer. I don't want that to affect your decision though. If you choose to stay with Team Eight, he'll keep her as an unattached Genin until a team or some other mission can be found for her."

"But…" Sakura hesitated for a few moments before continuing, "but what will Shino and Naruto think? I mean, if I did this."

Team Eight's Jounin instructor turned the question back on her student. "You've been around your teammates long enough to get a sense of them, how do you think they would react?"

"I… I don't know. I think Shino might be ok with it, he's pretty logical about everything. But… I just don't really know Naruto well enough to know what he would think."

In truth, that was the issue that worried the red-eyed Jounin most. She felt that she had a good sense of her students' personalities. With something major like this though, it was difficult to predict their reactions with certainty. She didn't want that to weigh on her pink-haired student's decision though. The issue of team dynamics was her problem as the Jounin instructor, not Sakura's

"I think if they understood your reasoning, that they would be supportive of your choice."

Sakura didn't answer immediately. Instead she swirled her cooling tea around a bit before bringing the mug to her lips and taking a large gulp.

"I really did have an unrealistically romantic view of shinobi life didn't I, sensei? I still remember what I said on the first day, during introductions. Thinking back on it now, it sounds so silly compared to what Shino and Naruto said."

Kurenai smiled sympathetically at the younger kunoichi. "I will admit that I had some concerns when I heard that. Still, it's good that you have self-awareness now, it's a trait that's lacking in too many people."

Sakura flashed a brief smile at her sensei before looking down at her mug once more. She swirled the remains of her tea around for a few seconds, watching as the small amount of liquid left formed a mini-vortex within the mug, before speaking again.

"I don't know what I should do. On the one hand this is like a dream come true; I've always wanted to study medical ninjutsu. On the other hand though, I feel like I'd be abandoning the guys."

"Sakura, I can't make this decision for you. But you'll have my full support whichever path you choose to take," Kurenai assured her. "I'll do my best to get Naruto and Shino to understand and support your choice as well."

"Can I… can I think about it for a day or two?"

"Of course. This is a very important decision for you, and I'm not going to pressure you into choosing until you're satisfied you've thought It through properly."

"Thanks sensei."

* * *

Strolling through Konoha's busy streets during mid-morning, Haku experienced an unfamiliar sensation welling within her.

It took her a few moments to identify the feeling. She realized that what she was experiencing was contentment.

Growing up as a missing-nin's apprentice had not been easy. It was a life constantly on the move, without a clear sense of direction and with no feeling of permanence beyond what you could carry in a backpack. There were moments of great happiness, moments of sheer terror, and everything in between. There had never been any moments of simple peaceful contentment though; the uncertainty of the lifestyle gave every feeling a hard edge.

Haku had only been in Konoha for one week. She recalled how nervous she had been when she first walked through the village's gates, her steps bolstered by nothing more than her faith that Zabuza would not deliberately send her to her own end. In that one week though, the Hokage and Kurenai had shown her kindness beyond what she expected. The village's leader had made a place for her in Konoha, while the red-eyed Jounin had provided Haku a place to live within her own home.

The ice maiden was under no illusions. The interrogation sessions she was put through after her first meeting with the Hokage had been performed with a soft touch, but had also been quite thorough. There was even someone from the Konoha mindwalker clan that she had read about, and she had submitted to his probing only with great reluctance. There was also the constant ANBU surveillance. She couldn't see them, but an occasional feeling of being watched reminded her of their existence. Even Kurenai taking her in served the purpose of keeping her under watch.

She couldn't begrudge them those precautions; she fully understood why they would take those measures with a shinobi they saw as having questionable loyalties and motivations. Even if they didn't fully trust her though, the Hokage had still given her a Leaf hitai-ate and allowed her free run of the village as long as she promised to stay within its confines.

The Hokage had even given her a new surname. After running away from her home village, Haku had sworn to never again use the family name she had been born with. While on the move with Zabuza she had occasionally used his name when she needed to. The Hokage had suggested that she adopt the name of a Konoha merchant clan that had died out several generations back instead, in order to hide her identity from anyone who might be looking for her, and also to establish a plausible link to Konoha for herself. At first she had been uncertain, but over the past several days she had come to like the way her new full name sounded.

When she objectively compared her life now with how she lived before, she had to admit that she was easily better off. The only thing she regretted about her new life, though it was a very large regret, was no longer being with the person she considered her adoptive father.

"Good morning Fuyuno-san!"

Haku turned to the rotund merchant who had addressed her, giving him a smile and a light bow. "Good morning to you too fruit vendor-san."

The large man gave the raven-haired girl a wide grin of his own. "Are you here today to buy some more fruit?"

Haku shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry, no. I was just taking a walk."

The fruit merchant clutched at his heart in an exaggerated display even as his face contorted into a comical parody of sadness. Haku had to put a hand to her mouth to cover her giggles at his antics.

The man dropped his arms and allowed his face to resume a more natural posture. "If you do need any more fruit, don't forget, I sell the freshest and juiciest fruit in all of Konoha!"

"I'll be sure to keep it in mind fruit vendor-san." Haku gave him another light bow before turning to continue down the street.

She had been startled when, several days ago, the fruit vendor greeted her warmly as she passed by. He had struck up a conversation with her based solely on the fact that she was a Konoha shinobi that he had never met before. When she said that she was a new genin, which was technically true, he had assumed that she was fresh from the academy and given her a nashi pear as a graduation gift.

The simple act of kindness from a complete stranger had touched the raven-haired girl greatly. When Kurenai asked her to do some grocery shopping the next day, she had made it a point to buy something from the fruit vendor as a way of thanking him.

She remembered how the citizens of Water Country looked at those who bore the Kiri village symbol, their furtive glances filled with barely veiled fear and hatred. In contrast her experience with the villagers of Konoha had been nothing but positive. Even if they didn't know who she was, they gave her warm smiles or respectful just for wearing the hitai-ate of Konoha's protectors.

"Haku-chan!"

The ice maiden turned her head at the distinctive voice, pausing to give its owner time to catch up.

"Good morning Sakura-san," Haku said with a smile and a small nod.

Team Eight's pink-haired kunoichi had become Haku's best friend in her new life by virtue of simply interacting with her the most. After the ice maiden's release from interrogation, Sakura had sought her out every day for help with Shousen Jutsu or simply to discuss first aid techniques that she had picked up over the years treating Zabuza's various injuries. Sakura had also taken it upon herself to show her new friend around Konoha, pointing out the best places to eat or shop for clothes.

"That looks really good on you," Sakura commented as she caught up to the older girl.

Haku looked down at the cornflower blue yukata she was wearing. It was decorated with muted green and purple floral patterns, and tied close to her body by a red sash around the waist.

"Thank you. It was Kurenai-san's, before she outgrew it. She gave it to me to wear since I don't have much in the way of clothes yet."

"What are you up to?"

Haku responded with a shrug. "Nothing really, I'm just out on a walk. I thought I might explore some of the markets today."

"Do you mind if I come with you then? I haven't been out shopping since coming back from Wave Country."

"Of course," the raven-haired girl said with a smile, "I would welcome the company."

The two kunoichi matched paces and headed further into Konoha's market district, chatting amicably as they went. Haku quickly noticed something different about her companion. The pink-haired girl's steps had a bounce to them that wasn't present before, and there was more vibrancy in her hand gestures and body movements as she spoke. It was almost as if Sakura had been relieved of a burden that she had been carrying for a long time.

"Sakura-san," Haku asked during a lull in the conversation, "did something happen?"

"Hmm?" Sakura responded without taking her eyes away from a clothing store's window display. On the other side of the glass the mannequin exhibited a red sleeveless top with white trim accentuated by a loose black wrap around the legs with a slit up to the hip. The pink-haired girl's mind immediately began putting the two together in combination with some of the clothing pieces and accessories that she already owned.

"It seems like you're happier today than you've been the last several days," Haku said. "Did something happen?"

Sakura reluctantly turned away from the window display to look at the older girl. "Oh, it's nothing really. It's just, after coming back from my first mission out of Konoha, it's finally just sinking in that I'm really home."

Haku accepted the answer with a nod. She had the feeling that Sakura was hiding something in her reply, but decided that it was not her place to press for a better answer. She was grateful at Sakura's efforts at befriending her and did not want to do anything that might harm her growing bond with the other girl.

The pink-haired girl turned back to gaze longingly at the window display for a few more seconds before coming to a decision. She reached out to grab Haku's hand.

"Come on, let's go inside here. I want to get that outfit and you could use some more clothes."

Haku allowed Sakura to lead her into the store, smiling as she listened to her companion describing how various accessories might look with the clothes on the mannequin display. There had been no children around her age in the village she grew up in, and once Zabuza had taken her in there had never been any opportunities to make lasting friends. Haku was finding the experience of having a girl friend quite a novel and pleasant one.

Half an hour later both kunoichi emerged from the store with shopping bags in hand. Sakura had bought the outfit on display right away, but had also persuaded Haku to get something as well. It was a cream colored robe decorated with blue flower and leaf patterns, tailored in a similar cut as the one she'd worn when she met Naruto in the forest. Haku had not wanted to buy the outfit at first as she did not want to spend any more than necessary from the amount that the Hokage had provided her to get settled with. The ice maiden had relented however when Sakura pointed out that once she was allowed to take missions she could earn enough to live on, and that she needed more clothes anyway.

"I've seen Shino-san once or twice since I've been in Konoha," Haku commented as the pair walked further down the street. "I haven't seen Naruto-san at all though. Is he ok?"

Sakura faltered mid-step, stumbling slightly before recovering. Haku chose not to say anything, momentarily slowing her stride instead to keep pace with her pink-haired companion. She did not want to be rude in drawing attention to the other girl's misstep.

"I haven't seen him either," Sakura finally said. "They might have him in the hospital checking on his healing bloodline limit I guess. Kurenai-sensei's called for another team meeting tomorrow so I guess we might see him then."

"Team meeting? Are you going to be leaving Konoha for another mission again?" Haku asked.

Aside from Sakura and the other members of Team Eight, Haku had become acquainted with only one other person in Konoha on more than a casual basis. It was Kurenai's kunoichi friend, the strange one with purple hair. The trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin had dropped by several times since Haku started living with Kurenai. The raven-haired girl suspected that this Anko person was keeping tabs on her as another part of the Hokage's security precautions, though she and Kurenai interacted in a way that clearly showed a close friendship. As much as she thought about it though, Haku couldn't understand how two people who were seemingly so different in every way could become such good friends.

There was one thing she did know though, and that was the fact that she really didn't want to be left alone in Konoha with only Anko to talk to while Kurenai and Team Eight left for another mission. Though Anko had never threatened her in any way, Haku still found herself a little afraid of the older woman. The Tokubetsu Jounin reminded her too much of a more talkative female Zabuza. Only with more crazy.

"A mission? Oh no," Sakura replied as she waved her free hand in a gesture of dismissal. "Ever since we got together as a team Kurenai-sensei has been holding little get-togethers at her place on Saturdays. She says it's to have us try out new recipes or as a reward after a week of hard work, but we all know that she's really doing it to promote team bonding."

"So you think Naruto-san would be there?"

"Probably. I don't really know, but I haven't heard anything about him. I think Kurenai-sensei would probably tell us if there was something wrong with him. I guess."

"Why?" Sakura added after a moment's thought.

"No reason really, I'm just curious," Haku replied.

The ice maiden didn't know how she should feel about the blond. He had saved her life on the bridge; she had been too stunned to even rationally comprehend what was happening at the time, much less move out of the way of the arrows. She had used what she knew of medical ninjutsu on him afterwards, but she didn't know how much that really meant in the face of the debt she owed him. Naruto's healing ability far exceeded what she had been able to do, and she wasn't sure if her skills ultimately made any difference in his survival.

There was also the fact that he had barely spoken to her at all on the journey to Konoha. She didn't know if it was because he harbored some resentment towards her for her actions on the bridge, or something else entirely. Even Shino, who she understood from conversations with Sakura was supposed to be the quiet one of the group, had spoken to her more than Naruto during the trip.

"Haku-chan?"

The raven-haired girl blinked as Sakura's voice cut into her thoughts. "Yes?"

"Are you ok?" Sakura asked. "You had this faraway look, like you were really out of it?"

"I was just thinking about how different my life is now," Haku replied, not wanting to voice her uncertainty about Naruto. "You and Kurenai-san have been really good to me. The villagers are nice too. I'm still trying to get used to it all."

"I'm sure you'll be right at home once Hokage-sama clears you for duties," Sakura said reassuringly. "It's getting close to noon though, how about we head to the food market for lunch? My treat."

"Are you sure?" Haku asked. "I have money, I can pay my way."

"Don't worry about it. Think of it as a belated welcome to Konoha present, and my way of thanking you for helping me with medical ninjutsu," Sakura said firmly.

The ice maiden smiled at her companion. "You'll have to let me treat you back once I start doing missions and earning money though."

* * *

"Anko, get your fingers out of there!"

"Oh come on Kurenai, just a little bit?"

"No, try that again and I'll take a kunai to your fingers!"

It was the first Saturday after Team Eight returned from Wave Country. There was less than half an hour left before Kurenai's students would arrive at her house for the usual team meeting.

Konoha's genjutsu mistress was busy battering and then deep frying shrimp and thin slices of vegetables. She was also using her body to block Anko's thieving fingers from reaching the large plate that contained her finished work. Given Anko's skills as a ninja and her willingness to use shinobi wire and jutsu to steal the tempura, it was a more difficult task than it sounded.

More than once, Kurenai considered just trapping Anko in a genjutsu of being attacked by an army of giant fluffy teddy bears until it was time to eat.

"Haku," she asked without looking away from her own cooking, "How's the yakisoba coming along?"

The raven-haired girl plated another batch of stir-fried noodles with vegetables as she replied. "I'm nearly finished Kurenai-san."

The red-eyed Jounin nodded. She had been assigning Haku small tasks to help out with as a way to get the younger girl more settled into her new life, and had found her to be quite helpful with daily chores. After Haku mentioned being the one to do most of the cooking while traveling with Zabuza, Kurenai began teaching her more advanced cooking skills as well. The things that could be accomplished with a fully equipped kitchen were far superior to what the raven-haired girl had been used to in her previous life. There were limits to what could be done on a campfire with a pot and some sticks.

A light knocking alerted Kurenai to the arrival of her Genin just as she was finished with her cooking. After setting the plate of tempura aside, she dragged a protesting Anko out of the kitchen with her to prevent the purple-haired woman from stealing food.

Kurenai opened the door to see Sakura and Shino standing side by side.

"We came across Naruto about half an hour ago sensei," Sakura said. "He said he might be a little late, he had to see Hokage-sama about something."

"Ok, why don't the two of you come in first? We'll wait a bit for Naruto," Team Eight's Jounin instructor replied as she stepped aside to make way for her two students.

Kurenai wondered what it was that Naruto had to speak to the Hokage about. She had been called to the Interrogation group's headquarters the day before to pick him up, after Ibiki and the hospital's chief of medicine finally decided it was safe to let him return to regular duty status. It had been late in the day by the time the paperwork was finished with; she only had the time to lead the blond to a ramen stand for a quick meal before taking him home and sending him straight to bed.

"Sakura-san, Shino-san," Haku greeted as she emerged from the kitchen with several plates of steaming hot yakisoba in hand. Her words were met with a light hug from the pink-haired girl and a nod from the bug user.

"Let's eat!" Anko declared once Haku had set the plates down.

Kurenai turned to her friend. "We're going to wait a bit for Naruto first."

"Why?" Anko pouted. "If he's not going to be on time the kid should be happy with just… oh hey he's just up the street, so we can eat yes?"

Kurenai turned, her gaze following the direction Anko was pointing at. As the trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin had said, Naruto had just turned the corner at the end of the street and was now making his way purposefully towards the house. Kurenai also noted that he was carrying a scroll in his hand.

She turned back to her purple-haired friend. "Yes, we can eat. Go get the plate of tempura will you? And I know exactly how many pieces there are, if there's even one missing I'm never cooking for you again."

Anko flashed Kurenai an impudent grin before heading into the kitchen. The red-eyed Jounin turned to wait for Naruto, glancing meaningfully at the scroll in his hands before giving him a questioning look as he approached.

"Sakura told me you had to see Hokage-sama. Was it because of that scroll?" Kurenai asked.

Naruto nodded as he lifted the large scroll he was carrying.

"I wanted to see if I could make a storage seal after I saw that thing Haku did in Tazuna-san's house. The library doesn't have anything on seals beyond basic books with general theories though, so I went to see if Jiji had anything I could read about it. I figured it could be useful to bring more gear along on missions. I ran out of kunai and shuriken after our first fight with Zabuza in Wave."

Kurenai nodded in understanding. It was unusual for Genin to use storage seals. They were like exploding tags in that they took some skill with sealing and considerable chakra to design, but once crafted could be used by anyone that could run chakra into their trigger elements. They were quite expensive when commissioned from sealing experts. For a typical Genin it was cheaper and more economical to either purchase a bigger backpack, or simply learn to pack more efficiently.

"You can get started on that later Naruto. Come on in, it's almost time to eat."

"Yes sensei."

* * *

Once the meal was over with Kurenai ushered her guests into the living room. Haku, assuming that the red-eyed Jounin wanted some privacy for her team's meeting, had gotten up with the intention of heading upstairs to her room. Kurenai moved to stop her by loosely gripping the younger girl's upper arm with one hand however.

"Kurenai-san?" the raven haired girl asked with a confused expression on her face.

The Jounin smiled at Haku as she led the girl into the living room with the others. "It's ok, you can stay."

Once she had guided Haku to a place on a couch beside Sakura, Kurenai moved to occupy a chair next to Anko. She gave the Genin in the room a few moments to settle in before speaking.

"This is our first meeting after Team Eight's first C-rank mission, and I'd like to open things by saying that I'm proud of how all of you handled yourselves during the mission."

Kurenai noticed that Sakura had lowered her head a little; evidently she was still feeling guilty about how little she was able to contribute during the mission. The Jounin decided not to bring attention to the pink-haired girl's reaction. Instead she continued her prepared words without missing a beat.

"Zabuza's involvement complicated the mission enough to have it officially reclassified as A-rank. The three of you were able to overcome the challenge through quick thinking and teamwork though. Not only did we complete the mission and free Wave Country from Gatou's stranglehold, we were also able to bring back a valuable addition to Konoha's nin forces."

Kurenai paused briefly to nod in Haku's direction before continuing.

"Before we take more missions however, we need to discuss some changes to how this team will operate. Firstly, Sakura will no longer be part of the team."

Team Eight's Jounin instructor paused for dramatic effect. Sakura had made her decision earlier in the week, and Anko knew of the plan as well. Two and a half other sets of eyes glanced first at Sakura and then Kurenai, confusion written on their owners' faces.

Uncharacteristically, Shino was the first to speak.

"Sensei, is it because…"

The bug user let his words trail off. From the subtle shift in his body posture, Kurenai deduced that he had come to the same conclusion about Sakura's combat performance during the mission, but didn't want to bring voice his thoughts in front of his teammate.

"No, it's not," the red-eyed Jounin lied with firmness in her voice. "I spoke to the hospital's chief of medicine, and he was impressed enough by Sakura's potential that he offered her personal tutoring and a spot in the next medical ninjutsu training group. Applicants for medic-nin training usually have several years more experience and come from Chunin ranks. It's extremely unusual for the chief of medicine to take enough interest in a student to offer personal tutelage, let alone a candidate who isn't even in medic nin training yet, so this represents a great opportunity. I discussed the idea with Sakura over the last week, and eventually she came to this decision on her own."

She turned her gaze to Naruto and Shino, making sure that they understood that her next comments were directed at them specifically. She had put considerable effort into bringing her three students together and didn't want this to create a permanent rift in their relationships.

"I want you to understand that Sakura isn't abandoning the team or anything like that. Konoha has many people with enough control over chakra to become ninja. Out of that population there's a much smaller number with the control to use medical ninjutsu techniques successfully, so Konoha's always in need of capable medics. It was a difficult decision for her to make, but in the end she'll be able to serve Konoha's needs more effectively."

Shino turned to Sakura. His dark sunglasses effectively hid his eyes, but Kurenai had learned to interpret the bug user's body language well enough to know that they were looking at Sakura questioningly.

"Sakura?" Shino asked.

"Well, I gave it a lot of thought, and, well, I decided this was where I could do the most good, and I'd be more useful with medic-nin training, and, well…"

Naruto's voice cut into Sakura's increasingly rambling response.

"The bottom line is, this is what you've always wanted isn't it? You've been studying first aid techniques all this time just so you could prepare for when you got the chance at proper medical ninjutsu training right?"

"Yeah," Sakura replied hesitantly.

Naruto smiled at her. "Then it's your dream in life, and you should grasp at the opportunity with both hands. We'll be sad that you're no longer with us all the time, but we'll be cheering for you as much as you can. Right Shino?"

The bug user simply nodded in response. Kurenai noticed though that he put slightly more head and body movement into the motion than normal. To anyone else it would simply look like a regular nod; she doubted that anyone besides those closest to Shino would have picked up on the difference.

"See?" Naruto continued, "Shino thinks the same way too. I don't know how we could help with your training, but if there's anything we can do just let us know. Maybe I could go and get beat up so you could practice healing me."

Sakura smiled. "Thanks guys. I… I really mean it. I was really afraid you'd be mad at me for doing this. I really didn't want to leave the team with bad feelings so I'm glad you guys understand."

"That goes for me too Sakura," Kurenai added. "The three of you are my first Genin team, and that means something special to me. Even if you're no longer under my direct supervision I still want to see you succeed. You can always come to me for help with anything, or if you just want to talk."

"Thank you sensei. I'll try my hardest. I know that this is a unique opportunity, so I'll do my best to make you proud that you helped give me this chance."

Kurenai gave her ex-student a smile before turning back to Naruto and Shino.

"There aren't any rules saying that Genin teams have to be three members strong. It's traditionally done that way though, and there are some things which teams cannot do without having the right number of people. I've spoken to Hokage-sama, and he has agreed to the idea of putting Haku on the team in Sakura's place.

"I'm going to give the two of you the final choice however. You can accept Haku as a teammate, but you need to understand that due to her special situation Team Eight would be restricted to D-rank missions until Hokage-sama feels it's safe to allow her outside the village. The alternative is to remain as a two person team and wait for another Konoha Genin in need of a team; doing D-ranks and whatever C-ranks the mission board thinks are safe for a reduced team."

Haku's eyes had widened at the mention of her name, but she kept silent to see how Naruto and Shino would react. For a minute silence dominated the room as the two remaining members of Team Eight exchanged looks with each other. Finally Sakura decided to speak out for her new friend.

"I don't know if my words mean anything since I'm not a member of the team anymore. But I'd like it if the two of you considered the idea. She's helped me a lot with medical stuff, and I may not have gotten a chance to study it formally without her help. She's also going to be more useful than I was, I mean she's a better fighter and…"

Shino held up a hand, indicating for Sakura to stop. He then turned to Kurenai.

"Sensei, what's your opinion on this?"

Kurenai allowed a few seconds to pass before responding. In truth she had already planned her words and arguments out well in advance, but she wanted to take the time to consider Shino's interaction with Sakura. He had cut her off with his hand gesture, but it didn't seem to have been done in a way that indicated he didn't care what she had to say.

It took a moment for Kurenai to realize that he had done it for the same reason that he cut his own words off before. He was deliberately trying to spare Sakura any mention of her comparatively poor skills in fighting.

Team Eight's Jounin instructor filed that bit of information away even as she allowed her mouth to form the pre-arranged response.

"I think Haku would be a valuable addition to the team. From a purely tactical perspective her abilities complement yours and Naruto's well. Looking at the situation from another perspective, Hokage-sama trusts her enough to let her wear the Leaf hitai-ate, so allowing her on a Genin team is the next logical step. It would make most sense to put her on a team that she's already familiar with rather than grouping her with strangers."

Her words had been deliberately chosen to appeal to the bug user's sense of logic. She left unspoken the fact that putting Haku in Team Eight would keep her under even closer supervision, and allow the Hokage to start testing her loyalty in a structured way by selectively choosing which missions the team would receive.

Shino nodded in acceptance of his sensei's reply. "I do not have any objection to allowing Haku on the team. We are no longer enemies, and as you pointed out she would be a good tactical addition to the team."

Kurenai turned to her other student. "Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged while glancing in Haku's direction. "I don't have any problems with it I guess. She did heal me after the fight. If our missions are going to be limited either way, we might as well take the option that makes the team stronger."

Kurenai nodded, and then turned to her new housemate. "Haku, what do you think about taking Sakura's place on Team Eight?"

"I would be honored. I'm grateful for the level of trust you're showing in me. Thank you for giving me this chance Shino-san, Naruto-san."

The raven-haired girl ended her words with a bow in the direction of the two male Genin in the room.

"Just call me Shino," the bug user suggested. "We're a team now, there's no need for honorifics."

"Me too," Naruto added.

"And me," Sakura declared as she patted her friend on the shoulder. "Good luck Haku, I'm sure you'll do great."

"I'll try my best to fulfill all your expectations of me," a somewhat embarrassed Haku said.

She was happy that they were allowing her to use their names without honorifics. It was a small thing, but it was also a gesture that showed her they were willing to accept her.

Shino turned back towards his instructor. "I have a question though sensei."

"What is it Shino?" Kurenai asked.

The red-eyed Jounin had expected something about training or missions, but Shino turned to the blond seated on the couch next to him instead.

"I want to ask about the chakra flare and your eye Naruto. It's the Kyuubi isn't it?" Shino said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"How did you…"

Naruto abruptly cut himself off as he realized he had inadvertently answered his teammate's question. His gaze darted around the room; in the brief second that he made eye contact with her Kurenai thought that he had the look of a trapped animal. She could feel Anko tensing up beside her as well.

She held up a hand, indicating to Naruto that he should stay silent for the moment. "Shino, tell me your reasoning for why you just said that."

The bug user took several seconds to adjust his sunglasses before responding. "Sakura and I already know, and if we were able to put things together Haku would also have been able to in time. I deduced from villagers' reactions to Naruto that everyone above a certain age knew, thus I assumed that you and Anko-san knew as well."

"That's a reasonable assumption," Kurenai replied, not wanting to give anything away for the moment. "How did you and Sakura come to this conclusion?"

"We spent some time researching the issue the day after our return from Wave Country. We were attempting to look for any history of Kekkei Genkai similar to Naruto's healing ability but found none. Sakura was the one who eventually acquired Naruto's birthday from the Hall of Records. With that information the other pieces fell into place naturally. Given the way the villagers look at Naruto, it's not a very effectively kept secret when one is inclined to investigate."

Kurenai did not answer immediately. Instead she glanced at Naruto out of the corner of her eye. The blond had pulled himself together somewhat, and was now staring at the ground before him with an impassive face.

She turned back to Shino. "Before I say anything, I want you to understand that next time you have potentially sensitive information you should come to me or another direct superior first. Your reasoning on whether or not those around you should have access to the information may be correct, but it's possible that there are other factors you're not aware of."

Shino nodded in silent acceptance of the critique. The red-eyed Jounin considered what to say next, quickly going through several scenarios in her mind, but was beaten to it by Naruto.

"It's not the Kyuubi," the blond muttered.

Naruto then glanced up slightly, his blue eye meeting Kurenai's red eyes. She considered the situation for a moment before giving him a slight nod.

He looked back down at the ground for a few seconds, and then came to a decision.

Naruto straightened his posture, his right eye closing even as his left hand moved to push his hitai-ate up. His left hand briefly moved to cover the left side of his face in a last moment of hesitation. Finally the blond's hand fell away from his face, and he blinked open his red and blue eyes.

Naruto's gaze moved around the room, meeting each of its occupants' eyes in turn. Haku looked slightly confused about the whole thing. He could understand that; not having grown up in Konoha she didn't have a background understanding of things.

"Um, I can go if you want," she suggested uncertainly as she started to rise from the couch, "I don't want to intrude if it's not something I should know."

Naruto shook his head. "Stay. In some ways, this involves you more than anyone."

Haku nodded and settled back into her seat, more confused than ever.

The blond turned to the pink-haired girl on the couch beside Haku. Sakura's hands were folded on her lap and her facial expression was carefully neutral.

His sensei gave him a sympathetic smile as his eyes turned to her. When he moved on, he saw that Anko's eyes showed no trace of surprise at the development.

"You knew?" Naruto asked in a quiet tone.

"Kurenai told me when you guys got back," the purple-haired Tokubetsu Jounin replied. "She thought it was something I should know if I were to keep teaching you."

"Will you?"

Anko shrugged. "Doesn't change anything. We all have our own demons to deal with, some more literal than others. I judge you based on your actions, not on something that's beyond your control."

Naruto nodded once in thanks before moving on.

His eyes finally settled on Shino, sitting on the couch beside him with an expression that was even more unreadable than normal.

Over the last few weeks Naruto had started to form a bond with his teammates. He didn't know if it was friendship; the blond had never had anyone his age who considered him to be a friend. Whatever the bond was though, he valued it greatly. He was afraid of losing it by what he was about to do, but was just as afraid of losing it through inaction.

Naruto closed his eyes once more and took several deep breaths. He crushed away the fear and hope in his heart with every breath. He had made the decision already; whatever the result was, he would simply have to accept the consequences when they came.

Once he felt that his breathing was sufficiently even, Naruto opened his eyes and willed himself to speak.

"It's not the Kyuubi," he said, repeating his earlier words with more firmness. "It's supposed to be, but it's not."

Sakura opened her mouth, but he held up a hand to forestall her question.

"Let me tell you a story. It started twelve years ago…"

* * *

Nearly an hour passed as the occupants of Kurenai's living room listened to Naruto with rapt silence. He left nothing out. He told them what he knew of the sealing, described his dreams and his two meetings with the girl in his mind, and relayed the Hokage's thoughts on what was actually sealed inside him.

By the time the blond allowed his voice to trail off he felt mentally exhausted. He dropped his head back down to look at the ground before him, afraid of the fear and rejection he might see in his teammates' eyes if he looked. Naruto allowed himself a few seconds of silent contemplation, counting them off while recalling his happiest moments spent with his teammates, before speaking again.

"Shino?" His voice was tired, hesitant.

"You're an idiot," the bug user replied simply.

The blond jerked his head up to stare at his teammate in surprise.

"This entire time you've been worried about our reactions," Shino continued in his usual even tone of voice. "It was evident in your facial expression and your voice. My kikaichu could smell your fear of rejection.

"But you never stopped to consider. It's been days since Sakura and I came to the conclusion that you had the Kyuubi inside you, and we still spoke with you earlier today, still came here after. We could have gone to Hokage-sama and requested a team transfer long ago if we wanted. The fact that it might be a shinigami rather than the Kyuubi changes nothing."

"Y-you mean…" Naruto looked back and forth to each of his teammates, his quavering voice betraying his feelings.

Sakura was the first to respond.

"At first we didn't really know how to react, so we spent a lot of time discussing it. Shino eventually pointed out that just because he carries bugs inside of him, that doesn't make him one. And he's right. You've been nothing but decent since we became a team. If you've had it inside of you this whole time, then it's not like your personality is going to suddenly change now."

Shino nodded in agreement.

"In some ways, a shinigami being sealed inside you makes the situation easier to accept than if it were the Kyuubi. Whatever it is though, its presence within you led indirectly to a satisfactory outcome during the Wave Country mission. The rest of us would have been put in significant danger if you had not been able to defeat Haku, and it was possible that you might not have survived the mission if your healing ability hadn't manifested.

"The adult villagers' attitude toward you is understandable given their direct experience with the Kyuubi attack, but also irrational. If you're truly the Demon Fox, socially isolating you would only make you more likely to turn on the village. If you're not, then it makes no sense to treat you as anything other than a normal child."

"So… you guys are really ok with this?" Naruto asked. There was hope in his eyes, but also fear of being mocked and rejected from the experience of growing up alone for twelve years.

Sakura smiled at him from across the room. At the same time he felt Shino placing one hand on his shoulder.

Naruto then turned to the last Genin in the room. "What about you Haku? As Team Eight's newest member you should get some say in this too."

The raven-haired girl looked around the room for a moment, gathering her thoughts before replying.

"I don't really understand what's going on. Most people in the Elemental Countries know about Kyuubi attacking Konoha, but I don't really understand any of the village's history beyond that. It doesn't matter though. You're just like me. You were born with something you have no control over. If I rejected you now, it would be like turning away from my own self."

Naruto closed his eyes and allowed his head to drop again, but this time with a smile on his lips and his shoulders relaxed from their previous tenseness. He had been happy when Kurenai had taken an interest in his development, but he also knew that it was part of her job as the team's Jounin instructor. Now, for the first time in his life, he was being accepted by his peers with no preconditions. He clasped his hands together tightly even as he tried to carve the memory of what he was feeling into his heart

"I… Thank you. All of you. I mean it. I… I don't really know what else to say."

Kurenai allowed herself a small smile at the scene before her. There were many points at which the day's discussion could have been derailed and the participants left with bad blood for each other. In the end though, everything had turned out as she hoped.

She tapped Anko on the shoulder and gestured for the trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin to follow her into the kitchen. This was a good opportunity for her to get her Genin some more tea and light refreshments. There was still more she wanted to discuss with her students, but she could allow some time for Naruto to enjoy his moment first.

* * *

"… so unless you guys have any problem with it, I want to start holding team practices again tomorrow."

Kurenai looked around the room as she finished her words. She had deliberately taken longer with the tea and snacks than necessary, keeping Anko and herself in the kitchen for over ten minutes. She wanted to give the four members of Team Eight, for she still considered Sakura one of her students even if the pink-haired girl was officially no longer a part of the team, time to talk with each other without supervision. When the two Jounin finally emerged from the kitchen, she had been pleased find that there was an air of relaxed casualness amongst the Genin.

Seeing that none of her students were voicing any issues, Kurenai continued with her plans for team training.

"Haku, I'll mostly want to work with you on teamwork for the time being. Your teammates need to know the full extent of your abilities, and you all need to learn to work and fight as a team.

"Shino, you did fine in the mission given the nature of your abilities. You would have benefited from a greater chakra reserve and more physical speed during the fight though. That's what I want you to be focusing on for now.

"Naruto, now that your teammates know about your eye, I want to see if we can find some way of allowing you to use it more. I want you to focus primarily on refining your chakra control."

"How will that help sensei?" Naruto asked.

"At this point your erratic chakra control puts most genjutsu beyond your abilities. With some more practice though you should be able to improve to a point where you can anchor and sustain a minor illusion on yourself. I'm going to teach you a genjutsu that will project an image of the eye being covered by your hitai-ate when it's actually exposed. That way you can use your left eye without having to constantly weigh its benefits against the risk of discovery. In Konoha at least it would be even easier. Since everyone already expects you to look like that, no one would think to check for an illusion."

"It will also help with something else I want you to work on," Kurenai continued. "Your kenjutsu is competent, but you would be more effective in combat with other options. I've asked Anko to start working with you on ninjutsu instead of sword skills."

"Sensei, if I may suggest something," Shino said. "I think that if it's possible, it would be a good idea for Naruto to learn Haku's method of using jutsu with one-handed seals. That way he could combine ninjutsu with kenjutsu."

Kurenai turned to the raven-haired girl. "Is that something you could teach?"

Haku nodded. "Zabuza-san taught me how. In theory anyone can do it, and you can use it with any jutsu. He said that it was something that previous generations of Mist swordsmen developed before they started adopting two-handed swords. It takes more chakra and willpower to do the same thing, and you have to relearn a jutsu from the beginning to use it one handed. But I can try to teach it."

"Well, it's not like I have any jutsu that are useful for combat now," Naruto said with a shrug. "So I won't have to relearn anything."

Team Eight's Jounin instructor clapped her hands together with a sense of finality. "Good. Now we all know what we need to work on. I'll see you all tomorrow at our usual training ground."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

This is the dealing with complications from the fight chapter, as hinted at in last chapter's notes.

I've always had this in mind for Sakura; I've been building towards it since chapter two. In canon, Sakura was mostly useless pre-timeskip during fights. All I remember is that she punched a clone and bit some guy. She may have thrown a kunai too. I kicked Naruto around thoroughly two years before academy graduation so he had enough time to bring his skill level up, I can't suddenly power her to where she can keep up with her team without a similar time investment.

Sakura may be able to fight off random bandits, but she's more or less dead weight during fights as the team moves on to face bigger and badder threats. The plot can't stop and wait for her to build up that level of confidence and skill. As Naruto stories tend to revolve around conflict resolution through bashing the other guy's face in, Sakura had to go.

That is not to say that Sakura's character is dead weight and is being written out. Her abilities are still useful in non-combat settings and she has an ongoing role to play in the plot. I hope that shows in the amount of page time she's been getting. If I just wanted her to cease existing as a character I could have done something like "and in the middle of the fight a random kunai bounced off the bridge deck and hit Sakura in the face killing her instantly ROFLhydrofoil!"

Now that Haku's a regular part of the cast, honorifics will become more commonly used. Please don't complain unless you're absolutely sure that I'm using them wrong. Kun is not male specific and chan is not female specific.

I've also decided to drop the glossary. It takes some time to put together each chapter and it doesn't seem like anyone actually needs it.

I've had a poll up for two weeks, and only poor Gamera hasn't gotten a vote. You guys must really hate turtles.

4/30/10: First Upload


	9. I Can't Even Get Myself to Move

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Nine: I Can't Even Get Myself to Move

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Naruto desperately threw himself to the left, barely evading the shuriken that sliced through the air where his abdomen had been. More projectiles tracked his path as he continued the motion; a trio of kunai of kunai embedded themselves into the ground, one after the other, just behind the path of his roll.

He struggled to get back on his feet, the action made more awkward with his right arm securely tied behind his back. He had just gotten himself upright when he saw a fiery projectile flying directly at his face. His eye widened in recognition at the shape, but his defensive instinct triggered and pushed his body into motion. He twisted back and away to dodge the flaming package of cup ramen even as his left hand came up in a seal.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!"

He couldn't muster the proper amount of chakra and focus while dodging attacks. The pale and deformed imitation that popped into existence by his side only managed to stagger around for a few seconds before dissipating in a small puff of smoke.

Naruto didn't have time to recover from attempting the jutsu. He was still off-balance when he saw the hard rubber ball speeding towards him. He dropped his left hand and managed to deflect it away from his groin, but the action left him vulnerable for the follow-up kunai that struck him squarely in the center of the forehead. The impact sent Naruto sprawling onto his back.

"…ruto! Are you alright?"

The blond shook his head, trying to clear the ringing in his ears. He turned his head to the voice and saw that Haku was running toward him. She dropped to her knees beside him and helped him up to a seated position.

Naruto gave her a grateful smile as he rubbed at the sore spot on his forehead where the kunai had bounced off. "Thanks."

A taller figure with purple hair approached him from the other side in a casual saunter. "C'mon kid, you've gotta do better than that. It's been almost a month and you still can't do one-handed Bunshin under pressure."

The smile dropped from his face as Naruto turned to glare hatefully at Anko. She met his hard gaze with a relaxed indifference, her hands moving rhythmically as she juggled a trio of rubber balls similar to the one she'd thrown at him.

"I'm trying, but it's not easy when you throw things at me nonstop," said Naruto sarcastically.

Anko shrugged, her hands shifting to juggle the balls in a more complex weaving pattern. "You think the bad guys are going to politely stop in the middle of a fight and wait for you?"

"You tried to nail me in the balls!"

"Completely legitimate battle tactic. Bad guys are going to take any chance they can to strike at your weak points."

Naruto pointed an accusing finger at the trench coated woman and raised his voice. "You set my cup ramen on fire and threw it at me! What kind of bad guy would do that?"

The purple-haired Tokubetsu Jounin looked down at him. The smile slowly creeping across her face was so sweet and innocent looking that Naruto had to suppress an involuntary shudder.

"Kid, you have no idea the kind of weird stuff people can do with things like bizarre Kekkei Genkai or forbidden jutsu. Someday you might meet a guy who can rip his own head off and throw it at you. If you can deal with the surprise of flaming ramen now, you'll be that much more prepared when you do come across strange things like that."

Naruto grunted, not wanting to acknowledge that the demented woman standing over him actually had a point.

"But that was going to be my lunch today! You're going to have to take me to a restaurant instead," he demanded.

"Screw that, I'm not wasting my dango money on a brat like you!"

Anko emphasized her words by flicking a ball horizontally to bounce off Naruto's forehead. Her other hand darted out to capture the rebounding ball, deftly integrating it back into the weaving juggling pattern in one fluid motion.

"Get up," she commanded. "I'm going to up the ante if you can't get Bunshin no Jutsu down by the end of today. It was just your lunch this time; tomorrow I'll break into your place and steal all your ramen for ammunition."

"You-you wouldn't!"

'_This is Anko, she really would,_' the blond thought to himself.

"You can't!" he corrected a second later, "I won't let you, I'll hide my ramen so you can't find it!"

"Kid, I'm a Tokubetsu Jounin and an ex-ANBU interrogation specialist. You think a punk like you can keep anything from me? Now get up and let's do this again."

Haku helped Naruto back to his feet as Anko turned to head back to the crates of blunted kunai and shuriken that she had been using for target practice. The raven-haired girl gave him a smile of encouragement before returning to the edge of the lake where she had been practicing her ice-based jutsu.

The blond reflected back on the past few weeks of training as he waited. Under Haku's guidance performing jutsu with one-handed seals came surprisingly quickly to him. It had only taken two days to start producing results, and by the end of the first week he could use basic jutsu while standing on water. Then Anko had decided that he needed to refine his skill in realistic combat conditions where he wouldn't be able to devote total concentration to performing a jutsu.

Where Haku's tutelage had been kind words and encouragement, Anko's approach mostly involved pain. The Tokubetsu Jounin started with having him practice while dodging slow strikes and the occasional lobbed rubber ball, but that had quickly escalated to full contact sparring and continual barrages of full speed projectiles. She sometimes allowed him to use his sword to defend himself, but as often as not tied his right arm behind his back in order to force him to rely on evasive movements alone.

She also forbade him from using his healing ability until the end of each practice session, by which point he usually felt more like a human punching bag than a ninja. She had said that she wanted him to be able to focus through pain and injury, but Naruto thought that she really just wanted to see him suffer.

He admitted to himself though that the trench coated sadist's training methods had definitely helped with his focus and speed.

Anko set aside her juggling balls and held a pair of kunai up. Naruto nodded in acknowledgement of their prearranged start signal. He settled into a defensive crouch in preparation for the next practice round, his mind already concentrating on shaping the flow of chakra for the next attempt at a Bunshin.

* * *

"Let's wrap it up for today. I have something I need to do in an hour, so I'm going to let the three of you have the rest of the day off," Kurenai called out as she approached with Haku and Shino in tow.

Naruto sat down heavily in relief, wincing at the sparks of pain he felt from all over his body. He had accumulated several dozen bruises during practice, and it seemed as if he had managed to aggravate every single one of them while sitting. Anko had been particularly intense that day; she had hit him more times during the three hours of morning practice than she usually did over a full day of training. He guessed that she knew Kurenai would cut the day's practice short and wanted to make it count.

He closed his eye and concentrated on the bruises, locating each by separating individual sources of pain from the general dull ache he felt all over his body. The now-familiar pull on his chakra reserves told him that his body was now rapidly healing itself. The old doctor with the thick glasses at the hospital didn't really understand how it worked, but he had given Naruto permission to use the ability as long as the blond reported anything unusual right away.

The sensation of a hand pressing down on his shoulder and cold steel sliding against his right forearm told him that someone was behind him freeing his right arm from the ropes binding it. He opened his eye and glanced over his shoulder to see a spiked-up purple ponytail.

"You didn't do too badly today kid," Anko said as she cut away the ropes. "You're still cracking under heavy pressure, but I'll leave your precious ramen alone tomorrow."

"Gee thanks," Naruto mumbled sarcastically as he rubbed at his right arm to restore its blood flow.

The trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin slapped the back of his head. "Just be thankful big sister Anko's so merciful. You never actually created a perfect Bunshin."

"Merciful, right, that's just the word that comes to mind when I think of you."

"Exactly! And you're so grateful for my mercifulness that the next time we train you're going to bring some dango."

Naruto grumbled but held his tongue. He knew from experience that it wasn't a good idea to argue with Anko. The last time he tried he spent ten minutes running from her and a surprisingly fast horse-sized snake that she had summoned.

"Naruto," Kurenai's voice cut in, "before you go I need a minute."

"Sensei?" the blond asked as he stood up.

"How's that genjutsu coming along?" the red-eyed Jounin asked.

He moved the fingers of his left hand into the appropriate seal and shaped chakra to execute the technique by way of reply. Nothing visible happened, but that was because he applied a genjutsu of his left hidden under his hitai-ate over his already hidden left eye.

Kurenai examined the illusion. Her experienced eyes easily picked out the blurring at the edges and the slight shifting of the entire image that indicated it was a genjutsu. With Naruto's chakra reserves and the amount of time he had spent training with it, she was quite impressed with his level of improvement.

She nodded in approval. "That's not bad at all. You should be able to fool Genin and even some Chunin with that. From now on though, I want you to start keeping it yourself on all the time as you go about your daily life. Once you get comfortable with that start using it during training as well. Ideally, you'll get to a point where it becomes second nature."

"What if someone sees the genjutsu?" he asked.

"Keep your hitai-ate pulled down. If someone sees the genjutsu and dispels it, they will just see what they saw before and will think that their eyes were fooled by the sun's glare reflecting off your hitai-ate or something. If anyone actually presses you on the subject, just tell them I taught you a useless genjutsu so you could practice chakra control in the village without being disruptive."

It wasn't a very good lie, but she didn't think things would come to that. She had seen firsthand how most of Konoha's villagers and even a good portion of the shinobi population preferred to simply pretend that Naruto didn't exist. While it had made his childhood difficult, with something like this it would turn out to be an advantage.

"I also have a more advanced chakra control exercise that you can start working on," Kurenai added. "I showed this to Shino and Haku earlier, so you can ask them if you have questions."

She held out a small stack of leaves. Naruto took them with a questioning look.

"The leaf exercise is similar in principle to the tree walking exercise," she said as she produced another leaf. "This time though, instead of producing enough chakra to stick yourself to an object, you're making an object stick to you."

The Jounin instructor held her right hand facing up and placed the leaf in the center of her palm. She then flipped her palm over, keeping her hand angled just enough so Naruto could see that the leaf was still sticking to her palm.

Kurenai held her arm in that position for a few seconds before curling her middle finger in to touch the leaf. She then cut the chakra flow from her palm while extending a small amount to the tip of her finger. When she straightened her finger the leaf went with it, adhering to her fingertip by a thin flow of chakra.

She held her hand in that posture for another few seconds, palm down and middle finger slightly below the others. Then she brought the tip of her little finger to the leaf, shifted her chakra flow, and lifted her middle finger away from the leaf. She proceeded to alternate the leaf across her fingers in a seemingly random pattern, at first slowly but with increasing speed until her fingers appeared to be dancing rapidly around each other with the leaf as a focal point.

"It takes greater control because the leaf is so thin. You don't have the same margin of error as you would with tree or water walking," she said.

Naruto dutifully opened his hand palm up and placed a leaf on it. Before he could even turn his hand over however the leaf shredded itself. He grimaced as the small pieces of leaf were carried away by a gentle gust of wind.

"You're using far too much chakra," Kurenai observed. "The tree walking exercise taught you how to maintain a constant flow of chakra. Water walking added a constantly shifting surface, teaching you how to modulate your flow to respond. This exercise is about precision of control when you change the flow."

The blond nodded in understanding and tried again. After a few more shredded leaves he was finally able to turn his palm over while keeping the leaf attached. When he reached for it with his finger though, the momentary lapse in control while changing the flow of chakra in his hand resulted in the leaf's disintegration.

"Keep working on it," Kurenai said encouragingly. "Once you get to the point where you can start transferring the leaf to your fingers, you'll need to adjust for the changes in its internal structure where you make contact. If you run out of leaves you can use regular paper, but it won't be the same because paper has more or less the same consistency throughout."

The red-eyed Jounin turned back to the rest of her team. "You're all dismissed for today. I'll see you at the usual time tomorrow morning."

* * *

"It's been almost a month since your team has been put on probation Kurenai-kun, how have they been coping with it?"

"Well sir, I can't say that the Shino or Naruto are happy about being put on D-rank missions again. Shino's as stoic about it as he is about most everything else though, while Naruto's been working out his frustrations through training."

"Ah, yes. I seem to recall something about that."

The aged Hokage set his pipe aside and reached for a stack of papers at the corner of his desk. He quickly flipped through them before pulling a yellow handwritten note out from near the bottom. As he set it aside Kurenai recognized it as a team progress report that she had submitted two weeks ago.

"Hmm," he said after skimming through the report, "your ideas about Naruto's development seem sound, but are you sure about having him learning jutsu from her?"

"Hokage-sama, you mean Anko?" Kurenai asked.

Sarutobi nodded. "I know the two of you are close friends, and I can only commend you for being able to look past her troubled past associations. There are many in the village that cannot do the same however. If they see Naruto using her jutsu, it is likely their negative opinion of her will taint Naruto as well."

"I had considered that. A large percentage of Konoha's civilian and shinobi population already hold negative opinions of him though. I think any effect of seeing him use Anko's jutsu pales in comparison to what he's already gone through because of the Kyuubi."

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair with a sigh, closing his eyes and bringing a hand up to rub at the bridge of his nose.

"Sometimes I wonder how things might have been if I had ignored my successor's wishes about telling the village of Naruto's status as the Kyuubi's keeper," he said in a tired tone.

Kurenai pondered the Hokage's words for a few moments before replying.

"I think that Naruto would have had a happier childhood. I have great respect for the Fourth and what he had to sacrifice for the sake of Konoha, but in this case I think that his decision was made through wishful thinking rather than a real understanding of how the villagers would react given what had been lost."

The aged Hokage smiled without opening his eyes. "I suppose that's one way of looking at it. You must understand though that none of us are perfect, not even the Hokage. We do what we can, but ultimately we're only human."

"I'm… I'm sorry if I've offended you Hokage-sama," Kurenai said as she bowed apologetically.

Sarutobi waved his hand lightly.

"Not at all; I understand your perspective in the matter. If anything, I'm glad that you care about Naruto's welfare enough to question the Fourth's judgment. I look forward to seeing how he grows under your guidance. If anyone questions your decision to have him learn from Anko, tell them that I personally approved of the plan."

"Thank you Hokage-sama. I'll do my best."

"Now, what about the girl? How's she dealing with things so far?" the Hokage asked as he reached for his pipe.

"Haku's still adjusting to life as part of a hidden village's regular shinobi forces. She mentioned that once Zabuza became a missing-nin they never stayed in any place for more than two weeks at a time, so this is a bit of a lifestyle change for her. I think she's coping with it reasonably well though."

Sarutobi paused to carefully pack his pipe with tobacco before speaking again.

"The reason I've called you in today is to discuss the possibility of taking your team off probation and giving them a C-rank. Do you think they're ready for it?"

"Well," Kurenai paused for a moment to consider her words, "I can't speak for the loyalty issue, but I'm comfortable enough with their level of teamwork to let them try a C-rank. They're about where the old Team Eight was just before the Wave Country mission."

The Hokage lit his pipe and took a long draw as he nodded thoughtfully.

"Her ANBU trailers and Anko haven't reported anything out of the ordinary. As paranoid as Ibiki can be, even he's starting to think that she might not have any ulterior motives. I suppose the next step is to show her an increased level of trust and see what she does with it."

"Hokage-sama, you're thinking of using the C-rank as a way of seeing if she runs or tries to contact anyone once outside the village?"

Sarutobi nodded while lightly shaking his pipe to settle the burning tobacco. He then reached for a folder sitting on top of one of the stacks of papers on his desk.

"That's part of the reason. If you accept this mission I'm going to have ANBU shadowing your team to keep watch on Haku. That's not the only reason though. I've been thinking of this idea for awhile, and we recently received a mission request that appears ideally suited for your group. It seemed prudent to take advantage of the opportunity."

The aged Hokage handed the folder to Kurenai. He then leaned back in his chair and puffed on his pipe as the Jounin quickly skimmed through the first few pages of the mission profile.

"Hokage-sama?" Kurenai asked as she looked up from the folder. "This is an infiltration mission. Shouldn't this be a B-rank?"

Sarutobi nodded in agreement. "Normally, yes. Our standard policy is B-rank and above for any mission that requires stealth. In this case though, the client's cheap and refuses to pay for anything higher than a C-rank."

"Why wasn't this rejected for the client's inability to pay for the proper mission ranking then?"

"The client happens to be a relative of the Fire Daimyo. It would not be…" the Hokage briefly paused to find the right words, "politically expedient for us to reject the mission."

Sarutobi smiled at Kurenai's brief flicker of a grimace before continuing.

"The client's a distant uncle of some sort though, and apparently not very popular with the extended family. The Daimyo doesn't particularly care whether we succeed with this mission or not, just that we attempt it so he can placate his uncle."

"If we succeed the Daimyo gets to take the credit for using his influence to make us accept the mission below our standard rates. If we fail though, he can shift the blame on us entirely for incompetence or not using our best assets."

The Hokage chuckled. "Exactly."

"I still don't see why you chose my team though Hokage-sama, wouldn't Kakashi's team be a better choice with the Inuzuka tracking abilities and Hyuuga Hinata's eyes?" she finally asked as she looked up again.

Sarutobi reached into one of his desk's drawers to retrieve a smaller folder before replying.

"Perhaps, and I would most likely offer this mission to them next if you decided to turn it down. Read through this first though. The intelligence analysis corps managed to put together some details about the target, including a schedule of major events for the coming month and pictures of past mistresses. I think that you'll understand why I chose your team first."

Kurenai accepted the folder and studied its contents for a minute before looking back up at the Hokage.

"Is your suggestion that we should…"

Sarutobi nodded. "The decision on how to approach this mission is up to you as team leader of course, but I believe taking advantage of what's in that folder is the best option given the circumstances. If you accept the mission and my plan I can make the arrangements from here."

The Jounin kunoichi shuffled through the photographs in the smaller folder once more, noting the similarities in facial features. Another part of her mind considered the odds of the team succeeding in the mission as well as the potential benefits and costs success or failure would bring her Genin.

Finally she nodded. "I accept the mission for Team Eight Hokage-sama. I'll brief my team on it when we meet tomorrow morning."

* * *

Naruto, Haku, and Shino crowded closer as Kurenai spread a large map of Tanzaku Gai on her dining table.

She began with a basic introduction for her students.

"Tanzaku Gai is two days' journey from Konoha on foot. There's a hamlet with an inn about halfway on the road we can overnight in. If we leave tomorrow morning you'll have two days to acquaint yourselves with Tanzaku Gai's layout before we have to act.

"The mission itself is to retrieve a family heirloom sword that the client lost to a Tanzaku merchant named Imagawa while gambling. The client doesn't want Imagawa to know though, so we're to leave a fake behind as replacement. We don't know where exactly the sword is being kept, but most likely it's somewhere in his private residence here."

The red-eyed Jounin extended her right hand to point at a large walled compound in the northern part of the map.

"Imagawa's not particularly well off, he's been steadily squandering the family fortune he inherited through poor business dealings. Our best intelligence is that he keeps a pair of ex-samurai around him at all times as bodyguards while the rest of his household security is made up of hired muscle with little real training.

"We could go straight in and search the place, but there's a better option available. Four days from now he's hosting an evening party at a ryotei named Hana to Mitsubachi for his business partners. It's a very exclusive restaurant that mostly caters to the rich and powerful amongst Tanzaku Gai's merchant population."

Kurenai slid her finger across the map to point at a building in its southwest part before continuing.

"He'll most likely bring his two ex-samurai bodyguards to the restaurant with him, and possibly some other household guards as well. We can take advantage of this to get into his residence while there are fewer guards there. We can also use the party itself as an opportunity to approach Imagawa and find out where he's keeping the sword.

"The plan is to infiltrate as part of the geisha entertainment that Imagawa hired for the event. The okiya that he contracted is friendly to Konoha and has helped us gather intelligence in the past, so we won't have any problems getting in."

Naruto raised his hand slightly. "What's an okiya?"

"Geisha house," Kurenai supplied.

"Sensei, when you say we'll infiltrate the party as part of the geisha entertainment, does that mean you and me?" Haku asked.

The red-eyed Jounin turned to nod at her newest student. "You've had some experience with infiltration while with Zabuza right?"

"Yes, Zabuza-san sometimes sent me to gather information on a target disguised as a civilian. I've never tried to disguise myself as a geisha though."

"Don't worry about it," Kurenai said reassuringly, "I'll be the full geisha while you take the role of my maiko. As an apprentice you won't be expected to have the same level of skill. Chances are you won't have to interact with any of the guests at all. The plan is for you to be part of the musical entertainment while I deal with Imagawa. You're good enough with the koto. With two days to practice alongside the actual geisha musicians who will be playing at the party you'll do fine."

The raven-haired girl nodded, looking slightly relieved.

Kurenai turned to her tallest student.

"Shino, you'll be infiltrating the party as well, but as one of the male attendants who escort the geisha to and from the okiya. You most likely won't be allowed inside the party itself. Instead you'll probably have to wait in a side room until the party's over. I need you at the party for the next part of the mission though."

She then gestured at the last Genin on her team.

"Naruto, you get the fun part. When the party starts I want you to break into Imagawa's residence and wait. As soon as I find out where he's keeping the sword I'll relay the information to Shino, and he'll get it to you with a bug messenger. There should be plenty of windows in the building to get a bug through, but you'll need to coordinate with Shino beforehand on where you'll be. Ideally you'll get the sword without any of his guards noticing and be gone before the party's over.

"The most important thing is that you're not seen, so take extreme care when you move. If the guards spot you Imagawa will take extra security precautions, and if he realizes the sword's our target he might move it somewhere else altogether. On the other hand not getting the sword on that night but retreating without getting caught costs us nothing; we can always come back and try again another night.

"That's the basic plan. We can work out further details when we get to Tanzaku Gai."

"Um, sensei?" Haku asked uncertainly.

Kurenai turned to the raven-haired girl. "Yes?"

"It doesn't really seem like my role's necessary. Maybe I should help Naruto with the infiltration, or… I guess I could stay behind if I'm not needed?"

"In some ways Haku, your role is the most critical of all. Imagawa's fondness for sake and music is something we can take advantage of, but there's one more thing we know about him that we can exploit for this mission."

Kurenai opened the smaller folder that she had received from the Hokage and pushed the stack of photographs it contained across the table.

"Take a look at these," she said.

Haku picked up the small stack and flipped through them, the other two Genin moving beside her to look along. She noted how the people depicted in the photographs shared similar facial structures and had long dark hair with parted bangs hanging over the front that framed their faces.

"Kurenai-sensei," she finally said, "are these… his women?"

The red-eyed Jounin nodded.

"The mistresses he's had over the last few years. Your physical resemblance to these women is one of the reasons Hokage-sama selected our team for this mission. Many of them were also musically inclined in some way. When we infiltrate the party, I'm going to Henge myself to look like an older version of you. With you playing music and me serving him sake, we should be able to get him talking without much trouble."

Kurenai allowed her students a few seconds to absorb the information before asking, "Do any of you have questions?"

She looked at each of them, making sure there were no questions before continuing.

"A few last details about equipment. Haku, you and I don't need to bring anything special. The okiya will have the required clothing and accessories prepared for us. I suggest leaving your koto behind and using one of theirs for the mission though, as yours has a pretty distinctive appearance. Shino, I don't know whether they'll have a male kimono your size ready, so it's best if you bring a plain one along. Naruto, you'll want to bring something suitable for infiltration, nondescript dark clothes and some way to hide your hair would work."

"I have black cargo pants and a black shirt, and I guess I could cover my hair for the mission," the blond suggested.

Kurenai nodded at Naruto before turning to the rest of the team. "You guys are free to do what you want the rest of today then. Get what you need for the mission, then get rested and get packed. We'll set off from the west gate at nine tomorrow morning."

* * *

Team Eight departed Konoha the next morning. Buoyed by clear skies and a refreshing summer breeze they made good progress on the road. It was only mid-afternoon when Naruto spotted the outlines of the hamlet they would spend the night in before continuing on to Tanzaku Gai. The small settlement, consisting of a number of log huts with thatched roofs flanking a larger two story building with a roof terrace, was laid out around a short path branching north off the main road. Situated at the end of the branch, the large building was painted in shades of red and white, had a large stone lantern to one side of its entrance, and bore fluttering cloth banners that advertised its services as a restaurant and inn for travelers.

What attracted his attention though was not the building itself, but the person that came jogging out of the building towards his team. The figure was nearly half a head taller than Naruto and wore dark pants with a gray hooded jacket. The most distinguishing feature however was the small white puppy that clung to the person's head as he ran.

"Ey, Shino, Naruto!"

"What are you doing out here Kiba?" the blond asked.

"Could ask you the same thing, a mission?" the youngest scion of Konoha's dog-using clan replied.

Shino nodded. "We left Konoha this morning."

"We're just getting back from ours, escorting some old guy who's got more money than brains back to Konoha. He thinks someone's out to get him all the time, but we haven't come across even a single bandit the entire way. The guy always smells like booze too, right Akamaru?"

The dog balanced on the Inuzuka's head yelped in agreement.

"What's with the sword? I don't remember ever seeing you with one," Kiba commented as he poked Naruto in the chest.

"It's just how I fight now," Naruto replied.

Kiba laughed. "You never could beat me in taijutsu back at the academy. I guess you suck so much you need a weapon to compensate."

The blond shrugged and let the comment pass without response. He had never really been friends with Kiba, but had gotten to know the Inuzuka well enough during their academy days together that he felt he had a good sense of the taller boy's personality. Kiba was very competitive and as vocally expressive of his feelings about everything as Shino was not. Naruto knew though that while the dog user enjoyed bragging and trash talking, there was rarely any real malice in his words.

"You're Inuzuka Kiba right?" Kurenai inquired from the back of the group.

"Yeah, I am, um…" Kiba answered as he shot a quick questioning glance at Shino.

"Our Jounin instructor, Yuuhi Kurenai-sensei," Shino supplied.

"If I recall you're part of Kakashi's team aren't you?" Kurenai asked. "Is he in the inn now?"

"Nah, he's maybe half an hour back on the road. Our client got tired, so he sent us ahead to get rooms while he stayed with the old man," Kiba replied as he jerked his thumb at the road in the direction leading towards Tanzaku Gai.

The red-eyed Jounin turned to her team and handed Haku some paper currency. "Why don't you guys follow Kiba and get us a pair of rooms. I'll go find Kakashi."

Once Kurenai was out of earshot Kiba turned back to the Genin of Team Eight. This time his attention was particularly focused on Haku.

"You're the new girl right?" the dog user asked.

"Yes?" the raven-haired girl admitted tentatively. She was a little unnerved by how intently the boy was staring at her.

Kiba studied her for a few more seconds before straightening his posture and putting his hands on his hips.

"You're pretty, but you're not as pretty as my Hinata-chan!" the dog user declared authoritatively.

Haku's left eyebrow twitched in response to his words. She had thought that he might ask about her background or her abilities. What actually came out of Kiba's mouth was completely unexpected for her.

"Kiba!"

The feminine yell coming from the direction of the inn caught Team Eight and the Inuzuka by surprise. Kiba quickly ducked behind the tallest member of the group in an exaggerated attempt at concealing himself. "Hide me Shino!"

Naruto turned and saw Kiba's teammate running towards them. The distinctive haircut and the even more distinctive eyes identified her immediately.

"Hinata," Naruto greeted as she approached.

The Hyuuga clan's female heiress paused to give the members of Team Eight a quick bow before speaking.

"I could hear Kiba call my name from the inn. Did he say something stupid again?"

Naruto shrugged while Shino nodded.

"Kiba, what did you say?" Hinata asked the tuft of messy brown hair just visible above Shino's shoulder.

Seeing that an answer wasn't forthcoming from the dog user, Haku decided to reply herself. "Hyuuga-san is it? It wasn't anything bad. He just said that I was pretty, but not as pretty as you."

The Hyuuga heiress turned to the ice maiden. "You're, um, Fuyuno-san right? The new Genin who replaced Sakura-san."

Haku glanced briefly at Kiba. "Yes, I am. Is it common knowledge? And please, just call me Haku."

Hinata smiled at the other girl. "Hinata is fine for me as well. In answer to your question, not really. Kiba's mom's on the shinobi council though, so she tends to know more about what's going on. And please accept my apology on Kiba's behalf. He's an idiot and it was rude of him to say something like that."

"It was the truth!" Kiba insisted without coming out from behind Shino.

Haku returned Hinata's smile. "Don't worry about it, I didn't take offense."

"Your team is out on a mission?" the Hyuuga heiress asked.

Shino nodded. "Our sensei left to find yours. She gave us instructions to secure a pair of rooms in the meanwhile."

"Well then, let's get you guys those rooms first," Hinata replied as she turned to lead the group back towards the inn.

The two girls led the way, chatting amicably while getting to know each other. The three boys were content to follow behind them in silence at a relaxed pace.

Hinata pointed out the reception desk as the group entered the inn. "Once you guys get settled in, why don't you come out back to the garden? Sasuke's probably there now."

It did not take long for Team Eight to book a pair of adjoining rooms, one for Shino and Naruto and the other for Haku and their Jounin instructor. The ice maiden quickly made her way back to the boys' room once she deposited her traveling equipment in hers.

"Hinata-san seems nice," she commented as she closed the door behind her.

"Hinata doesn't act like the rest of her clan," Shino replied. "The Hyuuga have a well-established reputation for aloofness bordering on arrogance. They're fond of calling themselves Konoha's foremost clan."

Haku sat down by Naruto, on the closest bed to the door. "Are those two together?"

Shino nodded. "They've been friendly for years. I'm not sure when they decided to take the next step though towards being a couple though, most likely somewhere around our graduation from the academy."

Naruto looked back and forth at his teammates in confusion. "A couple? You mean like boyfriend and girlfriend? Kiba and Hinata?"

"Mhmm," Haku affirmed. "It was pretty evident, to me at least. Inuzuka-san wasn't really afraid of her when he hid behind Shino. It was more like he was playing around with her."

"Wow, I never knew. I never saw anything that gave me that idea," Naruto said.

"You're not the most observant of people about these things," Shino pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, you were out of the academy for nearly a year. When you came back you kept to yourself much of the time and didn't socialize with anyone to a great extent."

"Well, I had to catch up with the rest of the class, and I spent a lot time practicing kenjutsu on my own, I really didn't have time for stuff like that," the blond replied defensively.

"Naruto, I don't think Shino was criticizing you. He was just pointing out why you didn't know," Haku suggested. She turned a questioning look at the bug user, who confirmed her words with a nod.

"I think it was actually your hospitalization that eventually brought them together," Shino remarked after a few seconds of silence.

"What do you mean?"

"If I recall, she actually showed some interest in you before your tenth birthday, though at the time it was probably just admiration and a desire for friendship. You've changed quite a bit since then; it's possible that she may have transferred her attentions to Kiba because his personality is most like the way you were before your hospitalization. He's done a lot to bring her out of her shell too. She used to be very quiet and introverted."

"So you're saying that when I was younger I was a loudmouth idiot who was full of himself," Naruto said half-jokingly.

Shino allowed one of his eyebrows to rise above his sunglasses in response. "Perhaps."

The blond chuckled. "I wonder how things might have been if I hadn't changed. I guess it's just one of those missed opportunities I'll be thinking about when I'm old."

"Maybe this missed opportunity can lead to something better in the future for you," Haku suggested. "I was afraid of what might happen to me when I decided on going to Konoha. I still miss Zabuza-san, but my life has turned out for the better since. Sakura and the two of you are the first friends my age I've ever had you know."

"We're glad to have you too," Naruto said.

The blond paused for a moment before turning to Haku with a grin. "And Kiba's a blind idiot. You're definitely prettier than Hinata."

The ice maiden turned away with a light blush on her cheeks. "Um, thanks."

Shino was amused by his teammates' interplay, though both Naruto and Haku were too preoccupied to notice the subtle signs coming from the bug user. He allowed the two a few seconds of uncomfortable silence before speaking again.

"Since we're settled in, why don't we go find Kiba and Hinata? They said they would be in the back garden."

"That's a good idea," Haku stated. "I'm curious to meet this Sasuke. He's the last Uchiha isn't he?"

Shino nodded. "He's not the friendliest of people though…"

"You mean he's a jerk," Naruto interrupted.

"That's a word that could be used to describe him," Shino said noncommittally. "After the Uchiha massacre Sasuke kept himself apart from the rest of us as much as you did. I'm not justifying his behavior, but his exterior demeanor is an understandable reaction to what he's lived through."

Naruto shrugged and rose from the bed. "Well, we're not accomplishing anything sitting here. Let's go see if we can find Prince Uchiha the Magnificent."

Team Eight left the room and made their way out the inn's back door. Once in the garden they found Kiba and Hinata sitting together on a low stone bench talking. Sasuke was on the other side of the area, practicing taijutsu combinations by himself on a bare patch of grass.

Kiba saw Team Eight first and waved them over enthusiastically. "Hey guys, over here!"

Haku greeted them formally as she approached. "Inuzuka-san, Hinata-san."

She turned in the direction of Team Seven's third member and raised her voice. "Uchiha-san."

The only indication that Sasuke heard Haku was a slight pause in his movements; he did not bother acknowledging her greeting or turning to look at her.

"Don't mind Sasuke, he's just not a people person," the dog user asserted loudly. "By the way, you can just call me Kiba. And don't use any honorifics. It sounds weird and makes me feel as old as my mom."

The ice maiden smiled at the Inuzuka boy with the messy brown hair. "Then please just call me Haku."

"Haku-san, where are you from anyway?" Hinata inquired. "I don't recall ever seeing you in the village."

"I was born outside the village, but my family was originally part of a Konoha merchant clan," Haku explained, sticking to the background story that the Hokage had created for her. "I was taught some basic shinobi lessons by a retired ninja who lived nearby, and when I moved to Konoha Hokage-sama was kind enough to allow me to wear the Leaf hitai-ate."

"How come you replaced Sakura anyway? If you're new wouldn't Hokage-sama wait until the next graduating academy class to place you on one of those teams?" Kiba asked.

"I think that may have been the original intent," Haku replied. "When Sakura left active shinobi service to pursue medical training full time though, I suppose I was the natural choice to fill the spot. Sakura and my current teammates were the ones who escorted me to Konoha in the first place."

"Heh. Figured she wouldn't make the cut."

Four and a half pairs of eyes turned towards Sasuke at his words.

"What did you say?" Naruto demanded.

The Uchiha prodigy stopped his practice movements and took several steps to approach the group of Genin. "She was never any good at the academy. I don't know how she even managed to graduate, but someone like her doesn't belong as a shinobi."

"You don't know anything about her you arrogant bastard! Sakura's getting advanced placement into the medical training program because of her abilities. She's more talented with medical ninjutsu than you'll ever be."

Sasuke laughed dryly. "So what? And I wouldn't talk so much if I were you dobe. You didn't even graduate from the academy legitimately; Hokage-sama had to pull some strings to make you a Genin."

"I don't care what you say about me, but you will not insult Sakura in my presence. Even if she's not here she's still my teammate. I will not let you make light of her hard work like that."

The black-haired Uchiha moved until he was an arm's length away from the blond before replying.

"What are you going to do about it?" Sasuke asked as one corner of his lip pulled back into a crooked grin.

Naruto grabbed a fistful of Sasuke's blue shirt and pulled the Uchiha close.

"I'm warning you for the last time. Shut your mouth," he hissed through clenched teeth.

Sasuke struck at the tendons on the inside inside of Naruto's wrist, knocking the blond's hand away as his grip reflexively loosened from the strike. The Uchiha then pulled back slightly and settled comfortably on the balls of his feet. He brought his left hand up to brush away at some dust on his shirt before speaking again.

"Relax, Dead Last-kun. I'm just speaking the truth. There are people who have lives that are so worthless that they would have been better off never having been born. People like you…"

The blond ground his teeth together, but held himself back from making a move.

"… and people like Sakura," Sasuke added with an arrogant smirk.

Naruto growled, his right hand reaching for the hilt of the sword secured to his back. The sudden change in Sasuke's eyes momentarily startled him however. The two once-onyx orbs had taken on a dark red hue, with one eye bearing two black comma-shaped marks around the pupil while the other had one.

Sasuke was on the move even as he activated his Sharingan. The black-haired Uchiha quickly closed the distance between himself and Naruto with a quick step of his left foot. His left arm shot out to bat the blond's hand away from the sword hilt while his right palm struck at Naruto's face. Sasuke followed up on the attack by stepping through with his right foot and slamming his right elbow into the blond's sternum.

Naruto staggered back a few steps from the blow. He reached for his sword again while turning his right side away to put the sword hilt further away from Sasuke. The Uchiha was again faster however. Naruto was able to block the jab to the face, but with his left eye covered didn't see the near simultaneous kick to the back of his left knee. The impact of the strike dropped him to a one-legged kneeling position with his back partially turned towards Sasuke.

The black-haired Uchiha's right hand darted through the small gap between the blond's right forearm and upper arm. Realizing that Sasuke intended to grab and crank his right arm backwards for a shoulder lock, Naruto had no choice but to release the hilt of his sword and roll away awkwardly.

He had barely regained his feet when Sasuke was on him again, opening with a tornado kick aimed at the left side of his head that the blond barely blocked. The Uchiha continued with a series of rapid punches and kicks, quick feints to Naruto's right before throwing stronger attacks to exploit the blond's blind side. Without his sword Naruto found himself badly outmatched. Even though he easily read Sasuke's strategy at every step, and even with his entire focus committed to defense, he was only able to block the majority of the Uchiha's attacks. The occasional strikes that slipped through his defenses left Naruto painful reminders of his inadequacy with taijutsu. It was only due to Anko's harsh training methods that the blond was able to maintain his concentration after each of the Uchiha's successful attacks to defend against follow-ups.

Naruto crossed his forearms In front of his chest as Sasuke threw a particularly strong side kick. Though he was able to block the attack, the force of the kick still sent the blond flying to land hard on his back. He struggled to get back on his feet even as he saw the black-haired Uchiha rapidly advancing on him again.

The blond caught an indistinct burst of rapid motion out of the corner of his right eye. Sasuke stopped in his tracks as a trio of senbon embedded themselves into the ground just in front of him. A fraction of a second later Naruto found Haku crouched before him to his left. She was facing the black-haired Uchiha, her right arm stretched out in front of Naruto protectively while her left hand held a pair of senbon.

"This ends now. You will not attack my teammate any further. If you approach any closer I will retaliate."

Her voice was even and controlled, with a dangerous undercurrent that emphasized her threat. There was none of the softness of tone that Naruto had come to associate with the ice maiden. The harsh edge with which Haku delivered her words reminded Naruto of nothing so much as the way her former master spoke.

Kiba and Hinata moved around Sasuke in a gesture of support for their teammate. The dog user had his fists clenched and his body tensed, but the Hyuuga heiress maintained a neutral stance.

Shino stepped up to Naruto's right side, his body held loosely in a relaxed posture and hands in the pockets of his large jacket.

"I also suggest that we separate for the moment. Our respective team sensei will be arriving soon; it would not be prudent for them to catch us fighting each other."

His tone was casual like his posture, as if he were discussing the weather. Naruto knew the bug user well enough though to realize that Shino's seemingly natural body language and manner of speaking were actually a carefully maintained act meant to defuse the situation.

Though it was subtle, the blond also caught the movement patterns in the grass around Shino's feet that indicated the bug user was releasing his Kikaichu in preparation for any eventuality.

After a few seconds of the tense standoff Sasuke allowed his posture to relax. He blinked as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his white shorts; when his eyes opened again the red orbs had returned to their familiar onyx color. The black-haired Uchiha's lips then curled back in a sneer.

"Hn."

Sasuke turned and strode back into the inn. Kiba and Hinata exchanged glances before following after their teammate.

Once they were out of view Naruto sighed and sat down heavily on a nearby stone bench. He leaned forward tiredly, allowing his head to droop down and his eye to stare dully at the ground beneath his feet. He didn't react when he felt Haku lay a hand lightly on his shoulder.

"I believe it would be wise to stay here for a few minutes," Shino suggested quietly. "We should avoid Team Seven until tempers have cooled on both sides."

Naruto nodded without looking up.

* * *

"I'm disappointed in you Naruto," Kurenai said as she sat down on the bed of one of their rented rooms.

"But Sasuke started it!" the blond insisted. "He called Sakura worthless!"

"Shino told me about how things went. Regardless of what Sasuke said, you were the one who made the first aggressive move weren't you? Or are you disputing Shino's version of events?"

"No, I'm not," Naruto conceded. "But I can't just let him insult Sakura like that."

The red-eyed Jounin nodded. "Your loyalty to Sakura is commendable, and I don't have a problem with your coming to her defense verbally. But we are all shinobi of the Leaf; we do not raise arms against each other in anger. Do you understand that?"

"But he…"

Kurenai made a sharp cutting motion with her hand as she interrupted the blond.

"You do realize he was deliberately goading you on? Shino was very exact with his account of what happened. Sasuke made sure that he was close enough to prevent you from drawing your sword before further provoking you. He's supposed to be the best taijutsu fighter of your graduating year. Once he stopped you from drawing your sword he had a decisive advantage."

Naruto's mouth tightened into a thin line. The Jounin instructor took that as a sign that he hadn't realized the Uchiha's intentions at the time. She gave him a moment to consider that before continuing.

"Konoha prides itself on unity and teamwork. It's fine to have disagreements with each other, but we do not take those disagreements to a physical level. What you and Sasuke did was a violation of the code of military conduct you agreed to when you took up the Leaf hitai-ate. If there had been serious injuries I could have brought the both of you up on charges. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sensei."

Seeing the unhappy look on his face, the Jounin kunoichi continued with a more gentle tone of voice.

"I know you think it's not fair, and in some ways it isn't. You're put in life or death situations and taught skills to kill people with. We expect you to act like an adult and bear that level of responsibility, but underneath it all you're still children. As shinobi of the Leaf though you're held to a higher standard."

"I understand. It won't happen again," Naruto murmured while keeping his eye downcast.

"Good. I want you to go apologize to your teammates. They put their relationships with the other Genin at risk when they moved in support of you."

Naruto nodded.

"After that apologize to Kakashi's Genin. That includes Sasuke."

"Why Sasuke?" Naruto protested as he looked up with his eye narrowed. "Even if I made the first move, it was his words that started it all. If I have to apologize, shouldn't he have to do the same?"

The red-eyed Jounin shook her head firmly.

"It doesn't matter who started it, and it doesn't matter whether he apologizes or not. You both share blame for what happened. Sasuke's not under my authority; Kakashi can deal with him as he sees fit. You are my student though, and I want you to accept your part of the responsibility for what happened and apologize to him."

Kurenai thought that Kakashi was most likely too lazy to bother disciplining the Uchiha in any way, but decided there was no point in giving voice to that.

The blond nodded glumly. Several seconds of silence passed between them before the Jounin instructor spoke again.

"Do you regret becoming a ninja?" she asked in a soft tone.

Naruto's head jerked up.

"What? No!" he answered reflexively.

The red-eyed Jounin shook her head. "I'm not going to accept a knee-jerk answer. Take some time and really think it through."

"What do you mean sensei? I don't understand."

"Just think about it seriously before you speak again. I'll wait."

Kurenai relaxed her posture slightly as she watched Naruto contemplating her question with his eye closed. She had no doubt what his eventual answer would be. She wanted to use this situation as an object lesson though, and she needed him to say the words aloud before she could do so.

Finally the blond opened his eye again. "No, I don't."

"Why not? Why this instead of anything else? It's not too late to change what you want to do."

"No," he declared with a shake of his head. "I have a goal in life, and this is the path that will help me achieve it."

"Haku's words?" Kurenai asked, thinking back to how Naruto had described his second encounter with the girl in his mind.

The blond nodded silently.

The Jounin instructor leaned forward and looked intently into Naruto's eye.

"Always keep in mind that this is a path you chose for yourself. No one can blame you for things that are beyond your control, but you have to accept responsibility for your own choices. As a shinobi of the Leaf, and as an adult in the eyes of Konoha civilian and military law, you need to understand that there are always consequences for your actions. What you do reflects not only on yourself, but on your teammates, on other Leaf shinobi, and ultimately on Konoha itself. Before you act, be sure that you're ready to bear that level of responsibility for your actions.

"That's what separates us from thugs and mercenaries. They fight for their own reasons or for money, and if things get bad they can always run somewhere else and get a fresh start with a new name. We don't have that luxury. We have to put the interests of our fellow Leaf shinobi and our village ahead of our own, and at the end of the day we need to be able to return to the village with our heads held high knowing that we don't regret any of our actions."

"I understand," the blond replied, this time with determination in his voice and his body held in a straighter posture.

"Good, now go and do what you need to do."

Naruto bowed to his sensei and left the room. He knew his teammates were in the other room waiting for him, but did not head over immediately. Instead he spent several minutes in the hallway reflecting on his sensei's words before finally reaching for the other room's door.

Haku looked at him sympathetically as he entered the room. "Kurenai sensei reprimanded you for what happened?"

Naruto nodded. "She's right though. What I did was wrong."

He took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Shino, Haku, I'm sorry for what happened. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did to what Sasuke said. I put you guys in a bad situation, and my actions could have led the two of you getting hurt."

"Don't worry about it," Haku said. "We're teammates right? We back each other up no matter what."

Shino nodded his head once. "You were right to defend our former teammate. What Sasuke said about Sakura was unwarranted and mean-spirited."

Naruto allowed a small smile to cross his face. Being beaten by Sasuke and then having his sensei point out the wrongness of his actions still hurt, but he felt a bit better about himself knowing that his teammates still supported him.

"Thanks for the support, but sensei's right. I was stupid to take the bait like that. I let Sasuke goad me into doing something I shouldn't have, and I acted without considering the consequences of my actions for the two of you."

He closed his eyes and took a moment to consider his next words before speaking again.

"I don't have many people who are willing to acknowledge me; Sakura and the two of you are my only friends. I promise you, I won't let my actions put you in danger like that again."

"Don't worry about it," Shino replied as he stood up. "I don't hold you in any less regard for what happened today. It's been a long day though; I'm going to look around the hamlet while there's still some daylight left."

The bug user moved towards the door, stopping as he passed Naruto to put his hand on the blond's shoulder.

"I understand sensei's rationale in the way she reprimanded you," he said without turning to face Naruto. "Speaking from a purely personal perspective however, I'm glad you moved in Sakura's defense. You were right when you said that Sakura's still our teammate, and Haku was right when she said that we back each other up no matter what. If you hadn't taken action I would have."

Shino squeezed Naruto's shoulder once before letting go and continuing out the door.

The blond turned to Haku with a questioning look in his eye.

"The walls are pretty thin; we could hear pretty much everything the two of you were saying if we held our ears close," Haku explained with a shrug from her position on the bed closest to the room's window. "I don't know whether Kurenai-sensei didn't realize how thin the walls are or whether she meant for us to hear as well."

Naruto sat down on the room's other bed. "That explains that I guess, but I was wondering more about what he said after. It seems kind of odd to hear Shino say something like that."

"You don't see it do you?" asked the raven-haired girl with a smile.

"See what?"

"Remember how Shino said you weren't the most perceptive person in the world when it came to certain things?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with…" Naruto's voice trailed off and he turned abruptly to look at the ice maiden as he realized what she was implying.

"You mean..." he finally said.

She nodded. "At least I think so. It's hard to tell something like that with Shino. It's hard to tell anything with him really, though I think I'm finally starting to understand his body language. Call it woman's intuition."

"Wow. I can't see it at all."

"Are you questioning my woman's intuition?"

Naruto raised his visible eyebrow. "Well…"

Haku looked at the blond in confusion for a few moments before finally replying in an accusing tone. "You're thinking about the day we met aren't you?"

"I already said I was sorry for thinking you were a boy. Besides, anyone could make that mistake with the way you look."

The ice maiden's eyes narrowed in mock anger. In response Naruto raised both hands up in an equally sincere conciliatory gesture while giving her a toothy grin.

"Remember I said you're prettier than Hinata," he said placatingly.

Haku sighed. "Fine, I'll forgive you this once. But only because you said that."

She stood and stretched her arms before continuing. "I'm going to look around the place like Shino. You want to come along?"

Naruto shook his head as the grin faded from his face. "I should find Sasuke and his team and apologize to them as soon as I can."

"I don't know them well, but Hinata-san and Kiba-san don't seem to be the type to hold something like that against you," she said.

"It's not them I'm worried about," Naruto said as he rose from the bed. "I'm not looking forward to apologizing to Sasuke, but I'll do what I have to do."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Why a second mission? I just rearranged the roster, I felt Team Eight needed another mission to show them coming together as a unit before they were ready to move on. Why a stealth mission rather than bashing some bandits? Novelty value I suppose, and the fact that we don't really need to establish how strong each member of the team is in live combat. I've taken some liberties with geisha culture though. In the past there have been periods where geisha kept their hair down, I'm using that rather than the more modern shimada hairstyle that you typically see nowadays.

If you feel that Kiba and Hinata are out of character, their lives diverged from canon two years ago when Naruto was hospitalized. They've had a moderating influence on each other since then. Another reason is in canon we only ever see Hinata in Naruto's presence, so she's always fully in the grip of a crush-induced shyness attack. That's not the case here.

The status of the next update is uncertain. I've had computer issues that ultimately required me to reinstall the operating system. The lesson I learned is that pre-writing chapters amounts to nothing when the hard drive they're stored on dies. So we'll see what happens in a week.

It does seem like I'm going out of my way to bash Sasuke doesn't it? I can only say that Naruto and Sasuke have a more complicated history than in canon, and neither side are entirely blameless in their antagonistic relationship.

5/07/10: Amended author's notes

5/07/10: First Upload


	10. I Don't Know Anything About What's

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Ten: I Don't Know Anything About What's Around Me

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

After a quick search of the inn, Naruto found two of Team Seven's members on the roof terrace. Kiba and Hinata stood by the railing, looking out over the forest behind the building and talking quietly with each other.

Naruto approached them slowly, taking note of the quick whispered words the two exchanged as they turned away from the railing to face him. He couldn't make out what they said however.

"Hey guys," he said.

"Naruto-kun," Hinata replied.

Kiba didn't say anything. Instead he took half a step to put his body partially in front of Hinata. Naruto saw that the taller boy's body posture was slightly tensed, as if ready to react at a moment's notice.

The blond stopped in his tracks. "I'm not here to fight, I just want to talk."

The dog user relaxed some of the tension in his shoulders, but didn't move away from his protective position in front of the Hyuuga heiress.

"What about?" Kiba asked.

Having become accustomed to detecting the very small changes in tone that accompanied his bug-using teammate's typically controlled manner of speech, Naruto picked up on the slightly edged undertone in the dog user's voice. He interpreted it as suspicion of his words.

The blond held his hands up and away from his body with palms open. "I'm here to apologize for what happened earlier."

Hinata put a hand on Kiba's elbow, lightly pushing him back to the side. Naruto saw that the remaining tension in the dog user's body faded away at the gesture.

"Sorry about Kiba," Hinata said, "I told him I didn't think you had any bad intentions, but he gets overprotective sometimes."

Naruto dropped his hands. "I couldn't blame you guys even if you thought that way. What I did was stupid. I realize now that Sasuke was deliberately goading me on. I shouldn't have taken the bait like that."

"It's no big deal," Kiba said with a casual shrug, his body language having changed now that he no longer perceived the blond as a potential threat. "Everyone was ok in the end."

"It could have been a big deal though," Naruto replied. "I'm not going to make execuses for my actions; I accept responsibility for what I did. I just wanted to ask you guys not to hold it against my teammates. Shino and Haku reacted because they thought I was in trouble. They didn't have any intention of getting into a fight with you."

Hinata smiled at Naruto's words. "We moved to back up Sasuke-kun too, so I can't blame them for what they did. I'm just thankful it ended without being a serious incident."

"It wasn't really your fault either. Sasuke can be a total bastard when he puts his mind to it," Kiba added.

"You can say that again," the blond mumbled in a low tone of voice, though loud enough for the other two to hear.

"Look," Kiba said as he moved one arm in a vague outward gesture. "Maybe it's not my place. You and Sasuke have had this thing about each other for years. I don't know whether to call it a rivalry or a feud. But he has a reason for acting the way he does."

Naruto turned to the taller boy with a puzzled expression. Kiba's statement about his relationship with Sasuke, as well as Hinata's lack of surprise at the words, caught him off guard. Though it was true that he didn't like the Uchiha prodigy, he had never really thought of himself as being in a feud or rivalry with the black-haired boy. He supposed it was possible though that his own feelings against Sasuke, as well as his lack of interaction with his classmates for the last two years, had blinded him to how others saw things in this matter.

In fact Naruto had always considered Kiba to be Sasuke's rival, at least after returning to the academy two years ago. He had never known the dog user well enough to count him as a friend, but he did remember that during their academy days there was no love lost between Kiba and Sasuke. They were the top two in taijutsu, their personalities were polar opposites in many ways, and during classes the dog user made it a point to challenge the Uchiha as often as possible. That was why Naruto was also surprised that the dog user was defending his teammate.

"I don't remember you ever being friends with Sasuke in the academy," Naruto commented, saying the words with a quizzical tone.

"It's… complicated," Kiba replied while making a face. "He can be a real jerk when he wants to be, but underneath it all he's not that bad a guy. All we saw during our academy days was the arrogant bastard mask. It wasn't until I spent some time getting to know him after graduation that I saw why he acts that way."

Naruto folded his arms in front of him and leaned against a nearby wall. "What do you mean?"

Kiba leaned back as well, putting his back against the railing and resting his elbows on top of it. "You know the Uchiha massacre?"

"Just the basics, someone wiped out the entire clan except Sasuke," Naruto replied. The massacre had occurred during his coma. When he woke up, with the way everyone tiptoed around the incident he hadn't been able to learn much more.

Kiba nodded. "It wasn't just anyone though, it was his brother. Uchiha Itachi was the genius of the family. He graduated from the academy at seven, made Chunin at ten, and was an ANBU captain three years after that."

The blond's eyebrows rose at Kiba's words. He'd never heard of anything like it. If he remembered his academy lessons correctly, even the Fourth Hokage didn't graduate from the academy until he was ten.

"Anyway, you can see how losing his whole family like that would affect him?" the dog user asked.

Naruto nodded after a few seconds of thought. He still didn't like Sasuke, but could sympathize with the black-haired boy's situation a bit.

"That's not all though," Kiba continued. "I mean, you're an orphan and you turned out ok right?"

"I guess," Naruto replied noncommittally. His feelings about growing up without any family were considerably more complicated, but he felt neither the need nor the desire to share them with Kiba.

"Maybe if that was the end of it, he could eventually get over what happened. But the villagers just keep bringing it up. During our academy days he kept to himself just as much as you did, so I don't think anyone our age knew about it at the time. Until you've seen it firsthand, I don't think you can understand just how much it affects him. I didn't really know until I started spending a lot of time with him as a teammate."

"How do the villagers treat him?" Naruto asked.

"It's hard to describe…" the brown-haired Inuzuka began, but his voice trailed off as he struggled to find the right words.

"Um, I think what Kiba's trying to say is that everyone sees Sasuke-kun through the lens of that one event," Hinata interjected in a somewhat hesitant tone.

The brown-haired Inuzuka snapped his fingers. "Yeah! It's like that's all he is to them."

"I'm not really following what you're saying," the blond said with a confused shake of his head.

"Whenever anyone in the village talks to him, it's like everything they say has to do with the massacre in some way. There are people who, I dunno, almost worship him I guess, and keep bringing up how he's the last Uchiha and needs to rebuild his clan back to its former glory."

"I don't really see how that's so bad," Naruto remarked. "So he has the adults treating him like the fan club in the academy did."

Hinata shook her head.

"It's not like that," the dark-haired Hyuuga heiress said quietly. "When people have great expectations of you, there's a lot of pressure to meet them. It can be worse than growing up with no one expecting anything of you."

"If you say so," Naruto replied, making only a half-hearted attempt to hide the doubt in his voice. With the exception of the Hokage, for the majority of the blond's life he didn't recall anyone expecting anything of him but failure. He couldn't really relate to what Hinata was saying. He supposed it was possible though that she understood something like that better than he did given her status as the heir of the Hyuuga clan.

"There are also other points of view," Hinata continued, her tone of voice gaining more confidence as she saw that Naruto wasn't about to dispute what she said. "Some villagers look down on him, thinking that the only reason his brother would have left him alive is because Sasuke-kun could never grow strong enough to be a threat to him. Others treat him with coldness because they think that he'll eventually turn on the village just like his brother did."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the Hyuuga heiress' words.

"I always thought that everyone treated Sasuke like some kind of royalty, I never really considered that there could be other points of view," the blond admitted.

"I didn't know either, until after teaming up with him," Kiba said.

The brown-haired Inuzuka scratched at his face for a moment before continuing.

"I'm not trying to justify what he did. He was definitely being a jerk back there and I can understand why you got mad. But he's a teammate and a friend, and even if they sometimes do things you don't agree with, you have to stand up for your friends you know?"

Naruto nodded in agreement. Kiba's sentiment was something he fully understood and shared.

A minute passed in silence, each Genin on the balcony reflecting on his or her own thoughts, before Hinata spoke again.

"Um, is it true what Sasuke-kun said though?"

"Hmm?" the blond turned to the dark-haired Hyuuga with a questioning look.

"He said that Sakura-chan didn't make the cut. Did she get dropped from being a shinobi because wasn't good enough?"

From her uneasy body language and hesitant way of speaking, Naruto could tell that she was nervous about offending him with the question. He shook his head firmly as he opened his mouth to answer.

"That wasn't how it was. Sakura wasn't the best fighter on the team, but she's smarter than Shino or I am, and really good with first aid and some other stuff too. When you count everything together she's as qualified to be a ninja as anyone else. Our sensei gave her the choice of leaving the team voluntarily to go into advanced medical training and she took it. Both Shino and I support her choice."

Hinata nodded in understanding, her body language relaxing at her relief that the blond hadn't taken offense at her question.

"I should go find Sasuke, I need to talk to him too," Naruto said as he pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning on.

"Try the forest in the back," Kiba suggested. "He's probably off training again, it's pretty much all he does ever since we came back from our first C-rank."

"I don't remember him having the Sharingan before graduation, is that when he got it?" Naruto asked the dog user. Shinobi academy classes covered the special abilities of Konoha's various clans, but only in very general terms. He was curious to know more about the Uchiha bloodline's signature doujutsu.

Kiba nodded. "Our team was sent to guard Fire Country's northern border, turns out there's some upstart new hidden village there. During one of the night patrols we got separated from each other. While he was alone Sasuke found and drove back a pair of Chunin level ninja from that new village who were trying to sneak across the border, and that's when he got the Sharingan. Apparently it doesn't activate until an Uchiha is in a life or death situation."

"What does it do?"

"He hasn't been really clear," Kiba answered with a shrug. "I guess he isn't too sure himself since he's figuring it out as he goes along. Something about being able to see chakra well enough to copy jutsu once he sees them being done."

"Copying jutsu? That sounds… useful." Naruto said.

He actually thought it sounded cheap, like the learning ninjutsu version of cheating off someone else during a test. But he had come to apologize and didn't want to start another fight by insulting the bloodline ability of Kiba and Hinata's teammate.

The brown-haired Inuzuka chuckled. "Tell me about it. Makes me wish I had one."

"Well, I should see if I can find Sasuke before the sun sets. Thanks for telling me where to look."

Naruto waved a goodbye and headed for the door back into the inn, but halted at the sound of Kiba calling his name from behind. When he turned around again, he saw that the dog user had a hand extended at him with palm open.

It took him several seconds to understand what the taller boy wanted. Finally, with a slight bit of hesitation, Naruto extended his arm and clasped hands with Kiba.

"You're a decent guy, apologizing like that was a classy thing for you to do," Kiba asserted as he gave Naruto's hand several good shakes. "It's too bad we didn't get to know each better in the academy. So how about it, friends from now on?"

The blond's mouth dropped open in surprise at the taller boy's words. "Friends?"

"Yeah, you know, friends."

"Erm, I guess so," Naruto replied, not really knowing what else to say. He turned his head from one side to the other quickly, his eye darting around looking for any sign that this was really some elaborate joke being played on him.

"Great!" the brown-haired Inuzuka declared with broad smile as he clapped Naruto on the shoulder. "It's good to make new friends you know."

"Yeah, yeah it is."

* * *

After parting with Kiba and Hinata, Naruto made his way into the forest behind the inn. He stayed on the small footpath that started from the edge of the garden, figuring that Sasuke wouldn't stray too far from it. His guess was proven correct when his ears picked up a light rhythmic thumping sound less than half a mile into the forest.

The blond stepped off the path to follow the sound. A minute later he found himself approaching the edge of a small clearing in the forest. He could see Sasuke at the other end, throwing punches into the trunk of a particularly large tree at regular intervals.

"What do you want?" the black-haired Uchiha asked as Naruto crossed the tree line and stepped into the clearing. He didn't turn around to look at the blond, and paused only long enough to deliver the question before throwing another punch into the tree in front of him.

Naruto took several steps until he was near the center of the small open area. "I'm just here to talk."

"What's there to talk about?" Sasuke punctuated his question with another punch.

"I want to apologize for what happened before."

Sasuke's fist froze halfway along the path to the tree. The Uchiha prodigy held that posture for a second before turning around, dropping his arm to his side as he did so.

"Apologize? What for?" Sasuke asked with his eyes narrowed and his lips drawn back in a tight grin. "You're sorry that I beat you like the useless nobody that you are?"

Naruto suppressed the flare of temper he felt at Sasuke's words. The only visible sign of his anger was a tightening of the muscles along his jaw line. He was here to apologize, not to get provoked into another fight.

"I don't care what you think of me," the blond said in an even tone. "I came to apologize and I've done that. No matter how much of a bastard you were trying to be, I shouldn't have taken it to the physical level."

The grin faded off the black-haired Uchiha's face as he realized that Naruto wasn't going to fall for his verbal taunting again. He turned back to the large tree as he spoke. "Fine, you apologized. If you have nothing else to say you can go."

Naruto watched as the Uchiha prodigy settled into a ready stance to resume practicing. Technically, he had done as his sensei ordered and apologized. But he didn't feel right about leaving; it was as if the conversation was unfinished despite Sasuke's words.

The blond counted off ten of Sasuke's punches before speaking again. "I talked to Kiba and Hinata. They told me about how the villagers treat you."

The black-haired Uchiha's fist froze mid-punch again. This time however he didn't turn around. Instead, after a second of silence his fist resumed its motion and slammed into the tree, producing a markedly louder impact than with his previous punches.

"Kiba has a big mouth. It's none of your business," he said as he pulled his fist back for another punch.

"He said it because he wanted me to understand why you act the way you do," Naruto replied.

"It's not… your business," Sasuke repeated, this time with a harsher edge in his voice. Each pair of words was punctuated by the sound of his fist slamming into the tree.

Naruto took a few steps back and leaned against a nearby tree. It really wasn't his place to pry if the Uchiha prodigy didn't want to talk about his personal life. If he were in Sasuke's place, he wouldn't appreciate anyone trying to dig into his affairs when he wasn't inclined to talk about them. Yet he still felt like the conversation was somehow unfinished.

Several minutes passed without conversation, the silence broken only by the regular thumping of the black-haired Uchiha's practice strikes against the tree.

"Why do we hate each other?" Naruto finally asked.

Once more Sasuke paused and turned to look the blond, this time with his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What?"

"As long as I can remember I've never liked you. I'm pretty sure you feel the same way about me. Why?"

"Why does it matter?"

Naruto gave him a light shrug. "Humor me."

"You brought it up, you answer first."

The blond supposed Sasuke had a point. He considered the question for some time, reaching back into the depths of his childhood memories to find any instance where the Uchiha prodigy had wronged him in some way. He couldn't pin the source of his feelings about Sasuke to any specific event however.

"I guess… I guess I was just jealous of what you had," Naruto confessed after a minute of thought. "I've never known my parents, while you came from one of the most prestigious families in the village. Things seemed to come so easily for you at the academy while I had to struggle for everything. It didn't help that you had such an arrogant genius attitude."

Sasuke chuckled, a low throaty sound that was more like a grunt or growl than a laugh.

"You have no idea what being a genius means. None of you saw how hard I worked at home so my father wouldn't be disappointed in me. I was never good enough; my father was always comparing me against..."

The black-haired Uchiha abruptly cut himself off. From the flow of his words however, Naruto was pretty sure that Sasuke had been referring to his brother. The blond decided to direct the conversation back to the original question; as he had come to apologize there was no point deliberately provoking the other boy.

"Fine. Maybe my reason was a little childish, but I was a child after all. What about you?"

"What about me?" Sasuke asked.

"Why do you dislike me?"

"What does it matter?" the Uchiha prodigy countered as he turned back to the tree he had been practicing on.

"You wanted me to answer the question first and I did, now it's your turn," the blond replied.

Sasuke shrugged dismissively without turning back to face Naruto. "It doesn't matter."

"Humor me," repeated the blond.

The Uchiha prodigy looked down at where the tree trunk met earth, taking several deep breaths as he debated whether or not to answer Naruto's question. Finally, his shoulders straightened as he came to a decision.

"You were the only one to ever beat me."

"What?" Naruto asked with a puzzled tone of voice.

"During academy taijutsu practice, you were the only one who ever beat me."

It took a moment for the blond to connect his memories with Sasuke's words. "You mean with the marbles, on my tenth birthday."

The black-haired Uchiha turned away from the tree to face Naruto a third time. "You beat me, and then you disappeared for months. You never gave me a chance to avenge my defeat. When you finally came back, you were so weak that it wasn't worth my time to fight you."

"Well I'm sorry that I was in the hospital in a coma for five months," the blond snapped. "I guess that didn't fit your schedule."

"What about afterwards? I could see how hard you worked to catch up. You were climbing back up the ranks so fast in taijutsu that I thought I would have a chance to fight you, evenly at full strength, before we graduated. And then you just… stopped!"

Sasuke emphasized the last word with an angry wave of his hand before continuing.

"All of a sudden your taijutsu wasn't getting any better anymore. Then when we sparred during graduation testing you spent the whole fight covering your face. Why? You're not vain enough to fail over hiding a scar, the only thing I could think of was that you were using it as an excuse so that I couldn't say I beat you at full strength!"

Naruto had no words to answer the angry Uchiha with. He couldn't tell Sasuke about his left eye, and without that there was no way to rationally explain his actions during the match. Instead he turned his head up to look at the pale blue sky through the forest's light canopy. After a few moments contemplating how the conversation had flowed to this point, the blond couldn't help but chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke demanded angrily.

"Nothing really," Naruto replied with a shrug. "It's just… our reasons for hating each other are really stupid."

The black-haired Uchiha was taken aback by the blond's words. Anger and incredulity briefly counterbalanced each other before he saw the truth of Naruto's words. Once he realized how absurd their respective reasons were, a chuckle escaped from his throat as well. Soon both Genin were laughing at themselves and each other.

"We're idiots," Naruto declared as he wiped a tear of mirth from the corner of his eye.

"Speak for yourself," Sasuke replied. There was no trace of hostility in his tone however.

Naruto scratched at the back of his head. "Since I was kind of responsible for starting everything between us with the marbles, I'll apologize for that as well. I just want you to take back what you said about Sakura."

"I don't care about her or anything she does," Sasuke replied. "I only said what I did to get you worked up enough to fight me. I'll accept both of your apologies, but on one condition."

"What?"

"Fight me now. Give me the even match I've been waiting so long for."

"I'm not at your level in taijutsu, you know that," Naruto conceded without any hard feelings. Sasuke had always been the best in the academy, and from their small altercation in the garden the blond could tell that he had gotten even better since graduation.

"Use your sword then. It's to compensate for having one eye right?"

"How did you know?"

"It wasn't hard to put two and two together," Sasuke explained. "Your taijutsu suddenly stopped getting better but you still seemed determined to graduate, so you had to have found some way to deal with your handicap that didn't involve taijutsu. Then when I saw you with a sword everything fell into place."

Naruto nodded in acknowledgement of the other boy's reasoning. "So my kenjutsu against your taijutsu?"

"Just like how it was during the graduation test, except it'll be fair," the Uchiha prodigy affirmed. "No jutsu, no Sharingan, no handicaps. Just a pure fight."

"Fine," the blond replied as he started to strip his arm and leg weights off. He gave himself several minutes to adjust to moving without the weights, bouncing lightly on his feet and waving his arms in wide circles. Naruto considered using his left eye, but quickly decided against the idea. If Sasuke wasn't going to use the Sharingan, then it would be cheating of him to use both eyes.

Finally Naruto picked his sword up and settled into a balanced kenjutsu stance at one side of the clearing. "I'm ready."

Sasuke nodded and dropped into a taijutsu stance on the other side. He kept his knees more flexed than normal so he could cover distance more quickly, and his hands were held in tight fists so his fingers wouldn't be a target for Naruto's sword.

"Let's go."

* * *

Once more the two Genin faced off against each other in the forest clearing. The light blue afternoon sky had given way to the brilliant orange of the impending sunset over the course of an hour of sparring. Both of them were breathing heavily from their exertions, and each bore an assortment of bruises and dirtied bits of clothing.

Sasuke had definitely improved since graduating from the academy, both in terms of speed and fluidity of technique. He had also eliminated his problem with starting attacks using the same sequences of movements. Naruto was pleased to find that his hard work had paid off however; he was able to keep up with the Uchiha prodigy on both accounts. He estimated that, thanks in part to his range advantage with the sword, he was giving Sasuke two good hits for each he took in return.

The Uchiha prodigy wasn't bothered by the way things were turning out either. Naruto supposed that it was because without jutsu or the Sharingan in play, neither of them could really claim to be better than the other based on this sparring session.

The blond glanced quickly at the sky before looking back at his opponent. "We've been at this for awhile, we should probably head back before it gets dark."

"Let me show you one last thing first, it's a combo I've been thinking about," Sasuke replied.

"Ok."

Naruto settled into a fighting stance once more, holding his sword slightly more vertical than normal in order to create a stronger defensive posture. He would refrain from attacking so Sasuke could try his combo, but he wasn't going to make it easy for the black-haired Uchiha to actually land anything.

The blond held his position as Sasuke cautiously approached, moving closer with measured gliding steps. Suddenly the Uchiha prodigy lunged forward, using a cross body swatting motion with his right hand to slap Naruto's sword aside and channeling the torque of the movement into a spinning left leg sweep.

Naruto quickly stepped backwards out of range of the sweep. Sasuke continued his motion into a jumping back spin kick which Naruto blocked by raising his forearms to the side of his head. Sasuke then leaned forward and pushed himself off Naruto's arms, propelling himself straight into the air a foot above the blond. He twisted his body vertically in a forward flip as he fell back down, using the momentum to add even more force to his left heel drop aimed at the top of Naruto's head.

Caught off guard by Sasuke's unusual technique, Naruto did not have the time to dodge the attack. Instead he held his sword horizontally above his head to block. He moved his right hand off the sword's hilt and put the forearm against the back of the sword to further brace it, simultaneously moving his right foot back into a slightly wider stance to absorb the shock of the blow.

Despite his knees nearly buckling, the blond was able to hold his posture as Sasuke's heel drop crashed onto his sword. Before he could take advantage of the successful block however the Uchiha prodigy chained another attack. This time he twisted horizontally into a midair spinning hook kick, targeting the back of his right heel at Naruto's right side.

Moving his right forearm to brace the sword block had left the right side of Naruto's head exposed. The kick whipped across the blond's face, the force of its impact twisting him off his feet into a graceless fall.

"That was… a good one," Naruto grunted as he lifted himself back to his feet, his other hand rubbing at the spot where Sasuke's heel had caught him on the cheek.

"I've been thinking of ways to force my way through your sword guard the whole time," the black-haired Uchiha replied.

The blond dusted himself off. "Since you showed me yours, let me show you something I've been working on before we go."

Sasuke nodded as he returned to the other side of the clearing. He then dropped back into a defensive taijutsu stance with his left side forward. As Naruto settled into the standard midlevel kenjutsu stance with his right side forward, he announced his technique.

"Uzumaki Rendan Sono Ichi."

The blond really didn't know if he was going to create any more sequences named after himself beyond this one. He decided though that calling it "Uzumaki Combo the First" made it sound more interesting.

Naruto shifted his left foot forward while raising his sword. He ended the movement with both hands just above and in front of his forehead and the sword held overhead angled diagonally backward. It was a classic kenjutsu high guard, meant to invite attacks by deliberately exposing the lower and middle portions of the body while simultaneously threatening the opponent with a strong downward attack.

"Tenchigiri," he declared as he locked gazes with Sasuke.

Heaven and Earth Cut. He thought the name sounded appropriately cool while still being relevant to the sequence of movements he had in mind. More importantly, the name would also mislead the Uchiha prodigy into expecting the vertical cut.

Naruto moved forward in deliberate gliding steps, keeping his left foot forward while measuring his distance carefully as Sasuke had done before. When he felt he had the proper range he made his move. His right foot came forward to meet his left as he started the sword on a downward arc.

Sasuke dashed forward, intent on getting close enough to disrupt Naruto's attack by blocking the downward swinging motion at the blond's forearms. He was taken by surprise however when Naruto didn't step into a right side forward stance to complete the expected downward cut. Instead the blond pushed with his left leg while stepping his right leg to the side, twisting his body to the right while rolling his hands over at the same time. The vertical attack smoothly transitioned into a horizontal cut aimed at Sasuke's head.

Caught too close to the attack, the only thing the Uchiha prodigy could try was bending backward at the waist to let the blade pass by overhead. Naruto had expected that; as soon as the blade cleared Sasuke's head he twisted his body to the left while rolling his hands over once more, changing from a horizontal cut to a downward diagonal cut going in the other direction.

Powered only by the twisting of Naruto's hips, it wasn't a strong attack. It was enough for what the blond intended however. The diagonal cut struck Sasuke on the calf of his left leg. As he was still leaned backward from evading the first strike, the impact was enough to knock the Uchiha prodigy's leg out from under him. Naruto quickly stepped in before Sasuke could fall to the ground, throwing his whole body into bringing his sword up in a rising vertical strike aimed at the black-haired Uchiha's back. The attack landed solidly and sent Sasuke flying into the air in a nearly horizontal position.

Naruto pumped chakra into his legs, preparing for the most difficult part of the sequence. Too little and he wouldn't be in range to get another strike in; too much and he would overshoot. As he pushed off the ground he was relieved to find that he had used just the right amount of chakra. The jump put in the air next to Sasuke with his hips even with the Uchiha's prone form. Raising his sword above his head, he brought both hands down in a strong vertical downward cut aimed at Sasuke's midsection.

The blond only put half his strength into the strike, but the impact still sent Sasuke crashing down to the soft forest floor. A second later Naruto landed lightly on his feet some distance away.

Sasuke coughed several times as he pushed himself into a seated position.

"That wasn't too bad either," he said in a wheeze, holding one arm across his abdomen where the blond's final blow had struck.

As he thought back to what Kiba had done earlier in the day, Naruto decided to step forward and offer Sasuke a hand. The Uchiha prodigy looked up at the blond with narrowed eyes for a few moments before grabbing the hand and accepting Naruto's help in getting back to his feet.

"Let's start heading back," Naruto said. "Our sensei are probably wondering if we've killed each other by now."

* * *

The rest of the night passed without incident, and the next morning the two Konoha Genin teams bid each other farewell and headed down the road in opposite directions. Naruto couldn't say that he had become friends with Sasuke during their short time together. He felt that he had come to some sort of understanding with the Uchiha prodigy though, with the two of them letting their childish grudges against each other go.

Though it meant an uncomfortable night of sleeping awkwardly, the blond held off on healing his bruises from the sparring session with Sasuke until well after the two teams had separated. His sensei and teammates were aware of his healing ability, but there was no reason to let Team Seven know about it as well.

It was past evening by the time Team Eight reached the outskirts of Tanzaku Gai, their journey slowed by having to wait out a sudden summer rainstorm. Given the late time, Kurenai chose to delay meeting with her mission contacts in the okiya until the next morning. Instead she rented a pair of rooms at an inn and advised her Genin to turn in early in preparation for a long day ahead.

The next morning Team Eight took their breakfast in Kurenai and Haku's room in order to have some measure of privacy for discussing their mission.

"Shino, Haku, as soon as you guys are done eating we'll go meet with the people at the okiya," Kurenai said as she set aside her tray.

She turned towards her shortest Genin, who had one hand in the air waving. "What is it Naruto?"

The blond quickly swallowed the bread in his mouth in an audible gulp before speaking. "What about me sensei? Am I going too?"

The red-eyed Jounin shook her head. "Your part in this mission doesn't have anything to do with the people at the okiya, so there's no need for you to meet them. In fact it's better if you don't know them and vice versa."

"Why's that?"

"It's called compartmentalizing information, or in simpler terms, keeping information on a need to know basis. In this mission it doesn't really matter. If you were captured during a critical mission though your captors can only force you to reveal what you actually know. The principle is even more important in the case of a traitor, as they can only betray what they know. If our side can then find out what the enemy's learned, we might be able to identify the traitor based on who had access to the leaked information."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully as he took another bite of bread.

"Given your reputation as Konoha's number one prankster," Kurenai continued, "I'll leave the preparation for breaking into Imagawa's residence in your hands. Just tell me your plans sometime tomorrow so I can come for you if you need help."

After breakfast Kurenai led Shino and Haku towards the okiya in the southwestern part of Tanzaku Gai. While his sensei and teammates coordinated with the geisha for their roles in infiltrating Imagawa's evening party, Naruto used the time to case the merchant's residence for his own part in the mission. He started by studying the place from the rooftop vantage points of several nearby multi-story buildings, taking care to hide himself so any observant guards would not realize that the property was being observed. That was followed by walking around the perimeter of the walled property under a number of different Henge disguises. He even paid some local children to throw firecrackers over the walls so he could study the guards' reaction times and movement patterns.

Naruto rejoined his team for dinner, but left their inn shortly after midnight and headed for Tanzaku Gai's town hall. Years of pranking experience supplemented by academy lessons on information gathering had taught him the value of normally overlooked sources of information. He broke into the building without any difficulty; walking right by the loudly snoring guard at the front desk and easily picking the inner door's large but crude padlock with a senbon he had borrowed from Haku. Evidently with so many businesses in town presenting more lucrative opportunities for the criminally inclined, town officials felt that there was no need for any more security.

With his left eye uncovered, he found that he was able to see well enough with the small amount of light from the waning crescent moon that he didn't need to risk using an artificial light source. After taking one last look outside the inner door to make sure the guard was still asleep, Naruto began searching silently but methodically through the various filing cabinets in the records section.

It took him half an hour to find the blueprints for Imagawa's residence and another five minutes to roughly copy the building's layout on a small notepad. Once he was done he carefully returned the original back to its proper place, taking care to ensure there was no visible sign that it had been pulled out recently. On his way back out of the office area however, his eyes were irresistibly drawn to an object on one of the desks.

It was a stapler, with a vibrant red body that contrasted strikingly with the dull colors of the other office furniture and equipment surrounding it. Naruto couldn't help but admire its stylish design, with rounded edges and a gently curved upper arm. There was a metallic oval disc inset into the top of the arm. Naruto ran a finger across it, feeling the raised bumps of the embossed word on the disc that most likely identified the stapler's manufacturer. In the darkness however he couldn't quite make out what it actually said.

The blond didn't understand why, but he felt that he had to have the stapler. Irrational desire warred briefly with an orphan's sense of ethics before Naruto plucked the stapler off the desk and dropped it into the large right front pocket of his cargo pants. He had never actually needed a stapler before, but at some point in the future he might have to staple something. It was better to be forearmed and prepared. Besides, it was a very nice stapler.

After a few more seconds of deliberation, he decided to cover up his crime by taking a lighter and a handful of hard candy from the other desks in the office. Once he was finished with his crime spree Naruto re-secured the padlock on the town hall's inner door before casually strolling out past the still slumbering guard. He took his time in returning to the inn, enjoying his newly acquired lemon-orange flavored candy and playing with the stapler.

Naruto spent the morning of the second day coordinating with Shino. They examined his copy of the blueprints over breakfast, and then headed over to the building itself under Henge disguises to get firsthand looks. It was well into the hottest part of the year, and the building had all its windows open to capture passing summer breezes. Naruto and Shino quickly identified several upper level windows near roof support beams that were good entry prospects for the bug user's Kikaichu messengers. They finished their planning by taking the most direct rooftop route from the residence to the ryotei where the party would take place, leaving female scent bugs at regular intervals so that the messenger bugs could easily find the way later.

After lunch with his team Naruto returned to the room he shared with Shino to prepare for the task ahead. He began by thoroughly applying a dark red dye to cover his distinctive blond hair. The same effect could have been achieved more easily with a Henge, but the now-redhead wanted to conceal his identity and purpose as much as possible in case he was seen. In the unlikely event that Imagawa's guards could recognize basic ninja jutsu, they would just see a kid with red hair rather than a disguised ninja. When Naruto was finished dying his hair, he was pleased to find that the dark red hue he had chosen faded into near-blackness when viewed in a poorly lit environment.

The next step was replacing his normal clothes with a dark T-shirt and black cargo pants with pockets on the sides of the thighs. A rolled up bundle of firecrackers went into each of the pants' front pockets, with each bundle also carrying one of Naruto's custom designed distraction tags with fuses adjusted to go off during the firecracker detonation chain. In addition to seal elements that drained off their explosive power, he had also deliberately created these two tags with substantially less chakra than normal. The end result was an explosion with just enough light and sound to distract without going beyond what would be believable from a particularly strong firecracker. The tags' paper would be completely consumed when they triggered, so if he were forced to use the bundles for distraction there would be no evidence that it was anything more than a kid playing a prank with firecrackers. In order to light the firecracker bundles, he painted his recently stolen lighter black and hung it around his neck by a cord.

Four small sealing scrolls went into Naruto's thigh pockets, two on each leg. After the experience of using a hastily carved sword to finish the Wave Country mission, he had started carrying extra swords with him as backup. Three of the scrolls each carried one of Naruto's wooden swords. They were a last resort however. As some of the first sealing scrolls he had successfully created, they activated with a great deal more noise and smoke than professionally made ones. The last scroll had been supplied by the mission client. It contained the replacement fake that he would leave in place of the real sword.

The final step was removing his hitai-ate and hiding his eyes with Shino's sunglasses. When he asked to borrow them, the blond had not been entirely surprised to find that his teammate carried a pair of spare sunglasses for emergencies.

"How do I look?" Naruto asked as he turned to his roommate, his eyes hidden by the sunglasses and one hand held in front of his mouth in imitation of the bug user's normal attire.

"You're not handsome enough to be an Aburame," Shino user commented casually from the other side of the room.

Naruto made a vaguely rude gesture in Shino's direction and turned back to the standing mirror before him to make some final adjustments to his disguise. After pushing the sunglasses higher up his nose as he had often seen his teammate do, he finally decided he was ready.

"Alright, I'm headed out," Naruto declared as he moved towards the room's exit. "Good luck with tonight."

"To you as well. Don't break my sunglasses," Shino replied without turning around.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Naruto called out over his shoulder as he pulled the door open.

He closed the door and turned to find his sensei waiting for him further down the hallway.

"Are you ready?" Kurenai asked.

The now-redhead approached his sensei and handed her his hitai-ate for safekeeping. "I feel ready. I've done what I could to prepare, all that's left is to actually do it."

"Just remember that this isn't a must complete sort of mission objective. You have the option of withdrawing if it's too difficult."

"I'll keep it in mind."

She patted him on the head. "Good luck and stay safe. I'm sure Haku would want to wish you the same, but she's busy with the hairdresser and makeup artist at the okiya."

He nodded. "I'm going. Tell her I said good luck."

After disguising himself with a Henge Naruto casually strolled through the streets of Tanzaku Gai, taking a roundabout route towards the merchant's residence. Once again he recruited some local children for a prank. This time however he paid them to throw eggs at the house across the street from Imagawa's front gate, figuring that the merchant might get suspicious if his place was pranked on consecutive days. He gave the kids enough money so that they would pelt the house's owner with eggs when he came out to yell at them.

Naruto waited at the back wall of Imagawa's property until he heard the yelling that indicated the egged house's owner had come out to confront the kids. He waited another minute, giving Imagawa's guards enough time to get distracted by the commotion. Then he made his move and scaled the wall. A quick dash through the back garden and a chakra enhanced jump later he was through an upper level window and hidden amongst the roof's support beams.

The blond settled himself into a more comfortable position and released his Henge once he was sure that his entrance had not been detected. It was a bit past noon; he would have several hours to observe the house guards' patrol patterns from the inside before he had to take action.

* * *

Haku played with the sleeve of her kimono anxiously. She knew that logically there was no reason for her to be nervous. It wasn't the first time she had taken on a disguise as part of a mission. In this case she didn't even have to talk with anyone, and she had practiced the song she would be playing enough that the okiya's Okaa-san had declared her ready. She supposed that she was feeling this way because she didn't want to let her teammates down on her first important mission as a Konoha ninja.

The experienced geisha at the okiya had taken great care in dressing and accessorizing her earlier in the day. They had told her that the kimono they picked for her, in a deep black color with a bamboo and flower motif in the lower half and across one shoulder, was meant to match the summer season. Her under-kimono, belt, hair accessories, and even her socks were supposed to reinforce the summer motif as well, though the geisha's explanations for how they dressed according to the season completely eluded her.

One of the two apprentice geisha across the room gave her a reassuring smile. The ice maiden returned the smile with one of her own as she released her kimono sleeve. She then closed her eyes and folded her hands on her lap, taking several deep breaths to calm her nerves. A few seconds later there was a light rapping on the room's wooden sliding door. She rose from her chair and fell in line behind the other two women as they left the waiting room and moved silently through a corridor. After turning a corner and entering the private room that Imagawa had booked, she followed the two apprentices in bowing to the assembled dinner guests. Her eyes discreetly scanned around the room as she straightened from the bow.

Imagawa was seated to her right, at the closest place setting to the room's entrance. She didn't recognize the geisha leaning on the merchant serving him sake. Given that the woman looked strikingly like a slightly older version of Haku herself and even wore a similar kimono, the ice maiden was pretty certain that the geisha was her sensei under a Henge disguise.

Haku followed the two apprentice geisha across the room to where attendants had set up their instruments. The koto she had practiced on at the okiya was there, as were a shakuhachi and a shamisen for the two apprentices. The former was a bamboo flute, end blown with five finger holes and a slightly flared bottom, while the latter was a three-stringed lute with an unfretted neck and a rectangular body with rounded corners. Together the three comprised the sankyoku, the three instrument ensemble that was one of the standard parts of a geisha's education.

Seating herself before the koto, she played a few experimental notes and made some motions as if to adjust the bridges under several of the instrument's strings. There wasn't a real need for such a thing; all their instruments had been checked for tuning earlier in the day and the male attendants who moved them from the okiya had been extraordinarily careful in handling the delicate musical pieces. The Okaa-san had explained it in terms of appealing to the male customers however. The delicate practiced movements used in pretending to tune the instruments gave the geisha performers an air of grace, while the time spent in performing the action gave the male patrons a chance to appreciate their beauty before the music began.

Finally they were ready. Acting on a cue that was too subtle for the guests to pick up, one of the experienced geisha moved elegantly to the front of the room on light steps. She knelt before the assembled guests and announced the name of the song. Sakura no Ame, Rain of Cherry Blossoms.

Haku rested her hands gently on the koto, feeling the tension in the strings as they dug lightly into the pads of her fingers and palms.

The experienced geisha gave the signal to begin the song. The ice maiden took one last deep breath, willing her mind to melt away into the moment, willing her existence to become part of the music's flow.

She raised her hands, until only the tip of one finger pressed lightly against the koto's highest string. Then, with a gentle exhale, she began.

At first, just four rising notes. Slowly, steadily. Then again, and again, the same four notes, the picks on her fingers brushing delicately at each string to softly lull the audience into the emerging scenery of the music.

The pattern expanded, four falling notes reaching down to meet the others, teasing the audience with the promise of something more.

The pattern repeated. Rising, rising, falling. Rising, rising, falling. Her fingers weaved through the notes delicately, as if pulling at the audience with invisible silk threads.

She ran her hands down the strings, one after the other, bringing the gentle contemplation of the introduction to an end. A cascade of notes flowed from the koto, losing their separate identities and merging together into a single sweeping flow, painting the broad strokes of the landscape. The pale blue tones of a clear sky, the lazy green strokes of a grassy field.

The shakuhachi began its part; the koto receded into the background in support. The shakuhachi's soulful tone swayed serenely from one note to the next, building the main theme of the song. The melody floated over and over itself, a few small changes each time, building higher and higher, until it pulled back just before the end. The image of tree trunks reaching up from the ground, each different from the last, bare branches outlined against the pastel blue of a spring afternoon.

The shamisen responded as the shakuhachi faded away, its rapid twanging notes drawing out a more vibrant counterpoint to the shakuhachi's restrained tone. The instrument sounded out several short repeating notes in a staccato followed by a rapidly descending series. Again and again, as if to challenge the shakuhachi's gentle melody. Dotting the branches of the trees with quick dabs of flowering blossoms, declaring life through contrast.

As the shamisen's reply came to an end, the shakuhachi's poignant tones flowed back into the scenery. The melody was the same, deliberately ignoring the shamisen's theme, a reminder of the inevitability of loss. A cycle of birth and growth, each passing year a variation on the same theme, until the final retreat before the end.

The shakuhachi faded, and the shamisen replied once more. This time in a higher pitch, a faster rhythm, a slight variation to the notes. The response was more urgent; a demand for attention in the brief transient moment between the beginning and the end, asserting the value of a blossom that only bloomed for one week in a year before its reason for being was over.

The shakuhachi returned to the song a second time, the same as before, melody building upon melody. This time the shamisen didn't wait, pushing its way into the middle of the shakuhachi's theme, insisting that its theme be heard. The shakuhachi's solemn melody had become a forest of trees, brown roots digging into the soil. The shamisen's retort a sea of blossom petals adorning the trees, colored vividly in celebration of their brief existences.

The dueling instruments diminished into the background, the struggle between life and death unresolved, still disputing each other deep in the backdrop of the landscape.

Haku's hands played over the strings of the koto again, another cascade of notes that flowed together. A transition, the wind blowing through the treetops. Then a melody, koto strings plucked with force so that each note resonated clearly. A simple but expressive combination of the shakuhachi and shamisen's verses, each note a loose petal. A rain of pink and white falling from the trees, blowing in the wind.

Her fingers lightened their touch; the koto retreated to the background of the developing scenery. The shakuhachi returned, this time picking up the theme the koto started. Each repetition brought a slight change to the melody, toying with the koto's idea. The shamisen changed its own refrain as it joined in, dancing lightly between the gaps in the shakuhachi's new melody. Each acknowledging the other's validity. Life bringing contrast to death, death giving meaning to life.

Once more the shakuhachi returned to its original theme, melody weaving over melody. In response the shamisen plucked a slow but purposeful set of discordant notes. A black butterfly floating just beneath the branches, flitting its way through a world of pink and white recognizing nothing but its own purpose for existing. The shakuhachi played on, weaving its final melody. This time it pushed on beyond its past efforts, ending with a quavering high note drifting through the forest.

The shakuhachi and shamisen lapsed into silence, allowing the koto to paint the final few strokes of the landscape. Haku's fingers moved lightly over the instrument's strings in a familiar pattern, the rising and falling sequence that opened the landscape with broad brush strokes now finishing it delicately. She ignored the eyes on her, putting the entirety of her feelings into every note.

Rising, rising, falling. Rising, rising, falling. Each sequence a hair's breadth slower than the last. Finally, the last four notes, a falling pattern bringing the entire scene to a close. Each note plucked more slowly, more gently, until the end, the last quiet note nearly lost in the room amidst the ghostly echo of the song's melody.

* * *

The corner of Kurenai's mouth curved upward slightly as she watched her newest student release a held breath upon playing the song's final note. She really had talent for the koto; she could have been successful as a civilian musician had fate and her inherited bloodline not forced her down a different path.

The red-eyed Jounin turned back to the merchant beside her. "More sake, danna-sama?"

Imagawa nodded without taking his eyes off Haku, having been enthralled by the ice maiden's appearance and playing. Kurenai poured sake into his cup and smiled at him sweetly as he downed the liquid in one gulp. Distracted by the musical performance, he hadn't noticed her slipping a small vial of clear liquid into the sake. It was a drug favored by some of Konoha's less violent interrogators, meant to discreetly affect the imbiber's mind to be more pliable to questioning without the victim realizing it. He also didn't realize just how drunk he was getting. Thanks to a creative application of genjutsu to fool his senses, the merchant couldn't tell that the liquid being poured into his cup at regular intervals was far more potent than regular sake.

Kurenai filled Imagawa's ceramic cup once more. From this point it was just a matter of skillfully weaving her questions into casual conversation before he started becoming incoherent from the alcohol. At the rate he was drinking, it was likely the merchant would wake up with a massive hangover the next morning and no recollection of any of the conversation.

* * *

The light tapping at the back of Naruto's neck from one of Shino's messenger bugs alerted him to his sensei's success in extracting the necessary information. He held his position, allowing the bug to repeat its message thrice to make sure he had interpreted it correctly before waving it away and making his move.

Imagawa's house guards really were of pretty poor quality. Around mid-afternoon he had overheard two of them talking about how the merchant had been away since morning to conduct business. Figuring that Imagawa would take his best guards with him, Naruto had taken the opportunity to explore the rest of the house. The guards made enough noise during their patrols that he always had ample time to hide himself before they got near.

The only part of the house that he hadn't explored was the corridor leading to the merchant's room. He had watched one of the guards passing through the corridor to check the room during the afternoon. Each of the guard's steps was accompanied by loud chirping noises, a sign that the corridor had a nightingale floor designed to produce noise whenever weight was put on the floorboards. Naruto decided at the time that there was no sense in risking going through the corridor unless he had to.

Not surprisingly, Imagawa had chosen to keep the sword in his bedroom beyond the corridor.

Naruto quietly made his way through the house until he was at the corridor. Calculating the time in his head, he hid for several minutes until the next regular patrol had passed the spot. Once they were gone he emerged and carefully channeled chakra to his feet. He walked up the wall and to the ceiling, one step at a time, until he was in the corridor standing upside down on the ceiling.

He then moved through the corridor cautiously, each step made slightly more complicated by the fact that the ceiling had a significant slant. At the other end of the corridor he eased the doors open and walked right across the threshold and onto the ceiling of the merchant's bedroom.

He moved down the wall and, after a few experimental pokes with his toe to make sure Imagawa wasn't paranoid enough to build a nightingale floor into his bedroom, finished walking so he was standing upright again. His time was limited, so he ignored the opulence of the room and made his way straight for the large rug to one side of the bed.

Naruto rolled the rug up carefully, making sure that he could place it back exactly where it had been once he was done. After a minute of slowly running his fingers along the floor beneath where the rug had been, he found the false floor panel that Shino's messenger bug had reported. He slipped the senbon he had borrowed from Haku into one of the false floorboard's edges, using it to gently lever the panel up to reveal the hidden safe underneath. He was relieved to find that the safe number sequence the bug reported was accurate as well; he didn't know how to break into a combination locked safe and had no choice but to abandon the mission had the information been wrong.

He unrolled the client's storage scroll and triggered it to unseal the fake sword. A quick swap and reseal later he had placed the fake in the safe while the storage scroll with the original sword was rolled up and stuffed back in his pants pocket. He replaced the floor panel and rug, then stepped back and took a minute to survey the room and make sure he had left no trace of his larceny. Once he was satisfied he then left the room the same way he had entered; Imagawa's bedroom windows had been secured with iron bars so he couldn't get out that way.

After he had left the merchant's property entirely, Naruto disguised himself with yet another Henge as walked through Tanzaku Gai's busy nighttime streets towards the inn. He was actually a bit disappointed with how the mission had played out, at least with his part in it. It had been less difficult than some of the more spectacular pranks he had pulled before graduation.

He shrugged and popped the last of his stolen lemon-orange flavored candy in his mouth. Maybe the next mission will be more interesting.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Naruto being able to outfight Sasuke here despite getting his ass handed to him last chapter may seem odd, but it's a logical consequence of the circumstances of the fights and way the two have trained. Last chapter Naruto never had a chance to draw his sword, and Sasuke took and held initiative the entire time. The Sharingan was only the icing on the cake, so to speak. Sasuke would still have won without it given the circumstances of the fight.

A skilled swordsman without his weapon is simply no match against an equally skilled (whatever that means) unarmed fighter. Besides skill, other things like tactics and circumstances also play a large role in a fight's outcome. Combat isn't as simple as the guy with over 9000 always beating the guy with 8999.

And for those of you who think 2-to-1 isn't a good enough ratio considering it's kenjutsu versus taijutsu, there are many ways to break through/bypass a guard with a wooden sword that would not work with a live blade. Sasuke's combo is a good example.

Those of you who are aware of the makiwara usage debate, or who understand the physics behind punching a non-yielding object, may have cringed at Sasuke practicing strikes on a tree. My excuse is that Lee did it in canon, and punching a tree sure LOOKS cool even if you may ruin your joints down the line. Personally, I prefer limited makiwara training with a lot more heavy bag work.

Absolutely nothing unexpected happened during the infiltration mission because Naruto would have to be the unluckiest guy around to keep getting mis-ranked missions every time.

For the reviewer who suggested Naruto should hold the sword in his left hand to compensate for the left eye, there are two reasons he doesn't. Depending on your style and specific hand and foott alignment, with a right handed sword in the more common kenjutsu stances with kissaki angled forward your shoulders will be squared (in which case it's a moot point) or your right shoulder will be forward. In the latter case your right eye can cover both your front and part of your back. If you had your left shoulder forward the right eye can only cover your front; you can't turn your neck far enough to see beyond your left shoulder. You're effectively presenting your blind side as a weakness rather than covering for it. The second reason is Naruto's right-handed.

Furthermore Tonfa is a poor choice of weaponry given the specific circumstances. As a thrust weapon it adds something like four inches, not nearly enough range to compensate. As a swing weapon, you need to use wide swinging arm motions to get more than annoyance strength strikes, giving the opponent plenty of time to close the gap. Held by the long ends and using the handles as hooks, well that's a more interesting approach but still not enough range. If you just need the forearm protection, wear a pair of arm guards.

I've had several responses over the last few chapters questioning why Naruto should "put up with crap" like the Hokage sending him to jail. My answer is that Konoha is first and foremost a military organization, and the Hokage is responsible for the safety of its population. When a soldier in your command starts exhibiting unknown powers that may be a prelude to a mental breakdown, you don't send him back to the barracks with a pat on the back. You isolate him and make sure he's not a threat to himself or his comrades. Even if Naruto objected, there's not a lot he can do about it. He's 10 or 12, depending on which jailing we're referring to. He could resist and get hauled to jail anyway. He could run away and get immediately tracked and hauled back to Konoha. Even if Konoha leadership has no plans to turn him into a living weapon like Gaara, it would be naïve of them to simply let something like Naruto run away and risk someone else grabbing and using him for their own possibly anti-Konoha purposes.

5/14/10: First Upload


	11. Is There a Future for Someone Like Me?

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Eleven: Is There a Future for Someone Like Me?

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Standing in a shadowed alcove across the street from the Chunin exam test center, Naruto watched as another trio of Genin hopefuls entered the building. This particular team, decked out in matching straw hats and raincoats that made them look comically out of place on a clear autumn afternoon, wore the stylized jagged triple grass blade hitai-ate that identified them as Kusa-nin. Most of the Genin that he had seen during the last hour of observation had been from Konoha though, with some Suna and a smattering of lesser villages represented. In fact, it seemed as if Konoha-nin represented more than half of the testing candidates.

In the three months since returning from Tanzaku-gai, Team Eight had undertaken a regular complement of D-rank missions as well as several more C-ranks. None came close to the difficulty of the team's first C-rank mission however; the most action that Naruto had seen during these missions was a small group of bandits led by a pair of ex-Genin ninja. Having settled into a steady if unexciting routine alternating between training and missions, he had been surprised when his sensei announced Team Eight's entry in the upcoming Chunin exam.

In retrospect, he supposed he should have expected something like it. With real estate agents advertising special rates to rent an apartment for the coming month and merchants stocking extra goods, it was easy to see that Konoha was preparing itself for a large influx of foreign visitors. There was also the fact that Kurenai had pushed the pace of the team's training at the cost of taking fewer missions over the last few weeks. Given the level of preparation necessary, the event wasn't exactly an ironclad secret. He could probably have found out beforehand by checking some scheduling notice board or other. Idly, he wondered what else he had missed in his childhood because no one bothered to tell him anything at the time.

Naruto pushed that train of thought aside as he saw his teammates approaching. He moved out of the alcove to meet them in front of the building.

"You guys ready?" he asked.

"I guess," Haku responded. "I'm not sure what I could have done to get ready aside from regular training though. Kurenai-sensei brought this up pretty suddenly."

"I suppose she had her reasons, or maybe she expected us to have already found out from somewhere else," Naruto said in return.

The blond then turned to his other teammate. "Did you know?"

"I did. My family gets advance notice of much that happens in the village," Shino replied. "I didn't think it was relevant to us though. Genin teams are typically not entered in the first Chunin exam they're eligible for, in order to give them more time to gain experience and improve. This particular exam has become something of an anomaly though."

"What do you mean?"

The bug user took the time to readjust his glasses before explaining. "There hasn't been an instance of any Jounin instructors entering a new Genin team for years. This year however, all of the new Genin graduates have been entered. It's created something of a stir in town gossip and with the local bookmakers."

"Hmm, I wonder if it's too late to go put money down on us," Naruto pondered aloud.

"Participants aren't allowed to place bets," Shino reminded his blond teammate. "It creates the potential for someone deliberately underperforming during the test to influence the outcome."

"You really think we can pass as rookie Genin?" Haku asked.

"Maybe, maybe not," Naruto replied with a shrug. "But if I'm too scared to put money down, that just means I'm mentally preparing myself to fail beforehand. You're technically a rookie Genin, but you have a couple years of experience with Zabuza. Shino and I have improved a lot since graduation as well. Even if we don't come out on top, I think we can still do pretty well."

"I hope you're right," the ice maiden said, the corners of her mouth tilting upward into a small smile at the quiet sense of confidence that Naruto seemed to exude.

"No sense standing around out here then. Let's go," the blond asserted.

The trio entered the building and took the first set of stairs they came across in order to make their way to the designated room. After rounding the first landing though, they came across the sight of what appeared to be a pair of Konoha Chunin guarding a door against a group of angry Genin.

"You can't keep us out!" one of the Genin declared angrily. "Our sensei entered us; we have a right to go in!"

One of the Chunin roughly shoved the Genin with a laugh, sending him falling to the floor. "This is for your own good punk. People die in these exams; you guys aren't ready for it yet."

Seeing that none of the Genin on the second floor had noticed him or his teammates yet, Naruto quietly signaled for Haku and Shino to follow him back down the stairs.

He turned back to them as he reached the first floor. "You guys saw that right?"

"The genjutsu you mean," Shino stated plainly.

"Should we confront those two about it?" Haku asked, her voice showing no sign of surprise at the bug user's words. Evidently she had seen it as well.

"Let's not," Naruto replied after a moment of consideration. "We'll just bypass them. There should be another staircase near the back of the building. If they can keep a couple teams from making it to the right room before the exam starts, that's just less competition for us."

The trio quickly made their way to the back of the building and up two flights of stairs to the designated third floor testing room. As they approached, they saw that their sensei was leaning against the wall by the door waiting for them.

"If you guys had been fooled by that blatantly obvious genjutsu, I would have thrown you all back into the academy right away," she said sternly. The smile she wore betrayed her true feelings though.

"At least they could have done something to make it seem like we were walking up two flights of stairs instead of one," Naruto commented.

"Those were some of the Chunin exam proctors," Kurenai replied. "A genjutsu like that is most likely beyond their abilities. The point was to weed out the most incompetent though, so it didn't matter if the illusion was rough and had glaring discrepancies."

She then moved away from the wall to stand in front of them. "Just remember what I said before. I don't expect you to beat everyone, but I do expect you to make a good showing. You're good enough, and more importantly you've worked hard enough."

"We'll make you proud of us sensei," Haku said.

Kurenai nodded at her female student's words and pushed the exam room's doors open to allow them entry. "Good luck you three."

* * *

Naruto held his head angled down with his eye firmly locked on the piece of paper laid out on the desk before him; he didn't want to give the exam proctors any reason to suspect that he was cheating. He kept his eye unfocused though. A casual skim through the test when he first received it had told him that the questions were far more advanced than what the classes at the academy had covered. He had studied diligently so he could pass the written portion of the Genin graduation exam, but these questions were definitely beyond what he could manage. He wondered if even Sakura could answer them if she were in his position.

Instead his mind explored other possibilities. He knew without a doubt that there was more to the test than at first appeared; the fact that it was being overseen by the head of Konoha's Torture & Interrogation Force was proof enough of that. During the time he spent as a guest at ANBU's holding cells Naruto had come to an understanding of sorts about Morino Ibiki. The scarred interrogator excelled at mind games, and anything that came out of his mouth could rarely be taken at face value.

With his understanding of how Ibiki operated, Naruto quickly pushed through the exam's deceptive façade to the most logical answer. It wasn't meant to be a test of academic ability at all. The way the points system was set up was practically an open invitation to attempt cheating. Ibiki's speech about the rules had placed particular emphasis on what happened if someone were caught cheating, but if he really wanted to prevent cheating altogether the ANBU interrogator could have separated the examinees into different rooms rather than packed them all into one large hall.

Naruto felt a momentary sense of triumph at seeing through to the test's true purpose, but that feeling quickly receded when he realized that his insight didn't help him in any way. He now knew he was supposed to cheat, but he had no idea how to go about doing it or whom to cheat off. The blond considered using his eye in this situation. He didn't know whether the slightly enhanced vision the eye provided would allow him to read the tests of the examinees around him who were already writing, but it was something to try.

Naruto raised his left hand to scratch absently at his temple. As he had gotten into the habit of keeping the genjutsu Kurenai had taught him active at all times, exposing the eye was simply a matter of hiding the motion of pushing his hitai-ate up.

His hand paused just before it lifted the hitai-ate enough to expose the eye; something still felt wrong to him. It wasn't the fear of someone seeing through the genjutsu. He recognized most of the exam proctors, they were Chunin he had seen either at the Hokage Tower or ANBU headquarters, and most were responsible for paperwork rather than field duties. He was pretty sure he could fool them with the illusion, especially since they already expected him to have his left eye covered. Ibiki on the other hand certainly would be able to see through the genjutsu, but then again the interrogation specialist already knew about his left eye.

No, it was something about the test that bothered Naruto. He identified the source of his unease a moment later. It was the fundamental unfairness of a test that required cheating for success. The way the blond understood it the test rewarded those with special skills suited to information gathering and punished those who lacked such abilities. It wasn't enough for one member of a Genin team to be a skilled information gatherer either, each team member had to pass on his or her own abilities or else the entire team would be failed. Naruto's only advantage in this area was the eye, and someone like Rock Lee had no way of cheating at all.

After some more thought, Naruto finally came to the conclusion that the entire exam had a hidden purpose. Ibiki had deliberately withheld the final question, saying that he would only give near the end of the examination period. That would be the true test; the first forty-five minutes of the exam only served to distract the examinees and put stress on them before the final question.

A glint of steel and a flash of motion from the front of the room caught his attention. Distracted by puzzling out Ibiki's true intent with the exam, Naruto's right hand darted out and caught the thrown kunai by the handle before the blond realized that the weapon had been aimed at a point past his right shoulder. He looked up at the front of the room and saw that one of the exam proctors was standing and smirking at him. The Chunin had a very distinctive look, with a thin strip of bandage across his face and a goatee adorning his chin. The blond had seen him around the Hokage Tower many times, but couldn't remember his name.

"Heh, good catch," the Chunin said, "but that was meant for the guy behind and to your right. Do me a favor?"

The exam proctor reinforced his point with a tilt of his head. Naruto shrugged, and then turned and stabbed the point of the kunai through the test of the examinee behind and to his right with enough force to embed the weapon's tip into the wooden desk surface below.

"Number twenty-three, you've been caught cheating five times," the Chunin declared with an evil smile. "You fail, and you've disqualified your teammates as well."

As the examinees watched the first three Genin to fail walk dejectedly out of the room, Naruto took the opportunity to study the faces of the exam proctors around the room. Their expressions showed various levels of triumph, with some openly gloating at the failing Genin. He then looked to the front of the room and found that Ibiki was already watching him. The two's eyes met for a second before the corners of the scarred interrogator's lips momentarily twitched into something that might have been a smile or a scowl. The expression came and went too quickly for the blond to discern however.

Naruto ignored the commotion as more groups were failed out of the exam, instead looking back down at his test while focusing on what he had just seen. The reactions of the exam proctors to the first failing group confirmed his suspicions that the test was about cheating; they were treating the exam as a game where their objective was to catch the examinees that cheated poorly. Ibiki was harder to read, and Naruto wasn't even sure what expression the scarred Tokubetsu Jounin had given him. He couldn't come up with a good answer that didn't involve a great deal of speculative guesswork, so in the end decided to set the question aside.

A light tapping at the base of his neck announced the presence of one of Shino's messenger bugs. The message was a simple summary of how the test actually worked along with the promise of exam answers in a minute; apparently Shino had come to the same conclusion about cheating and had started using his bug abilities to spy on the other examinees. The bug repeated its message twice more before flying away, only to be replaced a moment later by a new messenger bug that began tapping out the answer to the first question.

Naruto wrote the answer out on the space provided on his test, finishing just as the bug repeated its message for the third time and flew away. While he waited for Shino to deliver the next answer, he decided on a way to amuse himself.

He composed a poem in his head that made vaguely insulting references to Ibiki's parentage, put it through every basic cipher that the academy had taught, and then wrote the resulting coded message down on the back of his test sheet. He knew it wouldn't take Ibiki long to crack the code, but figured the interrogation specialist would get a laugh out of it nonetheless. The scarred interrogator's had a decidedly strange sense of humor; it was one of the things Naruto had learned about during his stay in ANBU detention.

* * *

Kiba jumped to his feet and pointed a finger at Ibiki.

"What kind of ridiculous rule is that?" the brown-haired Inuzuka asked angrily. "Besides, there are people here who have taken the Chunin exam many times!"

Perched above the dog user's head, Akamaru voiced his agreement with a pair of indignant yelps.

Ibiki chuckled diabolically. "You're just unlucky. I make the rules this year. But I did give you the option of backing out of the tenth question. For those of you who aren't confident, you can leave now and take the exam next year or the year after that."

Silence dominated the room for a minute as the Genin examinees absorbed the interrogation specialist's words. Then, the first hesitant hand rose.

"I… I'm quitting, I'm not taking it!"

Once the first example had been set, one hand after another rose to follow. Naruto glanced around the room at the faces of those who stood to leave. Some were angry, while many wore sad or resigned looks. There were a few though whose faces were completely vacant of expression, as if they were feeling nothing at all as they walked away. He wondered if that was a sign they would abandon the ninja lifestyle entirely.

Naruto blinked and cleared his mind; what went on in the other Genin's minds weren't his concern right now. The thing that should concern him was what was going on in Ibiki's mind. He had been right about the first part of the test after all; there was no real purpose to the first nine questions beyond creating stress and weeding out those who tried to cheat but did it badly. With the way the tenth question was being evaluated, an examinee's score from the other nine was essentially meaningless. It was obvious, to Naruto at least, that the tenth question's rules had a hidden purpose as well.

The interrogation specialist's rule was that anyone who took the tenth question but got it wrong would never be able to take the Chunin test again. That didn't make sense though. Naruto didn't know much about political relations between hidden villages, but he didn't think that other villages would let Konoha arbitrarily make up rules that might result in their ninja being Genin forever. Even for Konoha examinees the rule didn't seem right. Potentially destroying a ninja's career for getting one question wrong, especially if they were promising in other areas, seemed like a waste of resources to the blond.

After some thinking, Naruto came to the conclusion that the tenth question had a trick to it somehow, like a riddle with an obvious answer that only made sense when looked at from a certain perspective. Those who got the question wrong wouldn't actually be prohibited from testing for Chunin again. Instead the rules were announced that way to increase the examinees' stress levels even more, disrupting their thinking processes and making it more difficult to find that trick solution.

There was a small part of his mind that felt his analysis of the situation was wrong, but he pushed that doubt aside. Of all the possibilities he could think of this made the most sense to him. Now he needed to see what the other two members of his team thought.

As the last of those who had decided to withdraw from the exam filed out of the room, Naruto quickly glanced behind him at Shino and then Haku. Each of his teammates gave him a slight nod when their gazes met. Either they had come to the same conclusion as he had, or they had faith in their ability to answer the tenth question. Whichever turned out to be the case, they had made their intentions clear. Team Eight would move forward and take the tenth question.

The blond turned back to the front of the room. He kept his expression impassive as Ibiki's cold gaze scanned across the examination hall, pausing momentarily to meet each remaining Genin's eyes before moving on. When the interrogation specialist was satisfied that no more would drop out of the test, he took a step forward.

"For those who are still here, the first exam…"

Ibiki paused for several seconds for dramatic effect, his eyes moving around the room once again.

"…you've passed it!"

Once he had overcome the initial shock at Ibiki's announcement, Naruto's left eyebrow twitched in annoyance behind his tilted hitai-ate. He hadn't even considered the possibility that there would be no real tenth question. He made a mental note to expand his thought process to take into account all possibilities, no matter how unlikely, when trying to interpret the scarred interrogator's words in the future.

* * *

Anko's hands blurred into motion, and Naruto had just enough time to twitch his head to one side. Though he was sure that he had dodged her throw, he nonetheless still felt a thin line of pain across the right side of his face.

The blond looked behind him to see a pair of kunai partially embedded in the soft dirt, spaced several inches apart. The answer was obvious at that point. Having used kunai and shuriken on him extensively as part of her torturous training regimen, Anko knew his dodging habits better than anyone. She had set him up with one kunai, and then followed immediately with another targeted at where he would be after evading the first.

The trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin moved to stand before him with a devilish grin. She then bent over, cupping his chin and tilting his head up in a way that might have been erotic had it been any other woman doing it.

"Did you think my lecture was funny punk?" she asked sweetly.

Naruto supposed it looked like he deserved what she was doing. After all, he had snickered when she dramatically described the dangers in the Forest of Death.

But then again, she had bribed him with ramen the night before to do just that. She needed someone to attack in order to show the examinees just how crazy their new head proctor was, and Naruto was available and easily bribable. She hadn't mentioned anything about a second kunai though. The blond decided that once this part of the exam was finished he would extort another ramen out of the trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin to keep his silence.

"N-no, I didn't say anything," Naruto replied, deliberately allowing a frightened quaver into his voice to reinforce Anko's psycho act. He didn't mind if that meant he looked weak. His teammates knew what was going on, and if anyone underestimated him as a result of this, he could take advantage of that in a fight.

"Good. You wouldn't want to die right away, spilling the red blood that I love so much all over that dirty forest floor," Anko cooed dangerously.

Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes at just how over the top she was with the crazy act, instead responding with a frightened voice again. "I-I'll be careful, I don't want to d-die."

The trench coated Tokubetsu Jounin widened her grin before leaning forward and flicking her tongue over the blood on the side of his face. The blond heard a few gasps from the other Genin as she did so; he wondered if they thought she was going to eat his face off or something. After following the thin line of crimson to the end, she then leaned in a bit more until her mouth was at his ear.

"Don't die brat," Anko whispered, her voice too low for anyone but the blond to catch.

"I'll be fine," he whispered in return.

* * *

They had been traveling for an hour, moving north from their starting gate and along the upper branches of the forest's trees to minimize the risk of detection, when Naruto signaled for a halt from his lead position in the team's traveling formation. He stopped on a particularly large and sturdy looking branch, waiting for Haku and Shino to catch up before speaking.

"We've gone far enough that we won't be found by any teams circling the fence's inner perimeter looking for stragglers."

"We should start hunting the opposition ourselves," Shino suggested. "There's no meaning in getting quickly and safely to the tower unless we acquire a Heaven scroll first."

Naruto nodded. "I think we should start reconnoitering for signs of other teams. We can split up and do a quick check of the area around, and then regroup and figure out which direction to head toward next depending on whether we spot any traces of other teams. Then we repeat the process every half hour or so until we make contact."

Seeing the agreement in his teammates' faces he pointed to a section of the forest floor several dozen yards ahead. "There's a clearing up ahead. Let's meet up there in ten minutes. If you see anyone, try to get away without being noticed. If they do spot you, lead them to the clearing so we can fight them as a team."

Haku and Shino each gave him a nod of assent before moving off, with the ice maiden going west and the bug user heading east. Once they had disappeared from sight Naruto pushed his hitai-ate up to expose his left eye. He had been hesitant to use the eye during the first part of the exam, but felt he could safely use it in the Forest of Death.

He then moved on his own search pattern, veering to the left of true north on one leg of the clover leaf search pattern that was part of standard academy instruction. By curving to one side of his intended search direction and then returning on the other, he would end up taking an ovoid path that would cover more ground than just moving in a straight line.

The blond had only been moving three or four minutes when the forest's musty smell began giving way to a fresher scent. A few more tree jumps and he identified the source. Looking down below the branch that supported his weight, he saw that he was perched above a small brook that flowed lazily in a northwesterly direction. The water moved so slowly that even from twenty feet directly above the forest's ambient noise all but drowned its gentle lapping sounds out.

Naruto didn't remember any small brooks on Anko's map during her presentation about the forest, just the two large rivers that converged before passing right underneath the tower and heading northwest. He supposed it was possible that her map omitted less important topographical details due to its small size though. That or she had deliberately used a detail-sparse map in order to add an element of uncertainty to the test.

Either way, this was something that could be exploited. There would be teams traveling along the river, either to stay close to drinking water or so they could follow it to the tower directly. The brook under him now most likely fed into the river at some point. By following it and then hunting near the larger body of water, his team would be able to find and ambush other teams.

The blond quickly made his way back on the return leg of his clover leaf search pattern, reaching the clearing with two or three minutes to spare before his teammates would be due back. He stayed up in the higher branches of the tallest tree by the clearing however. Besides the fact that its height provided a superior vantage point, there was no reason to give his position away to any other teams that might pass by.

Two minutes later he heard a series of loud rustling sounds from the west, as if someone was running through the forest's underbrush recklessly. He turned to face that direction, drawing his sword and shifting his weight in preparation for a quick drop off the branch. After a few seconds of observation he finally spotted the source of the noise through the dense foliage of the forest's lower canopy. Haku was speeding along the forest floor toward the clearing, with what looked to be an entire team of Genin he didn't recognize in pursuit.

He held his position as his raven-haired teammate passed beneath, timing his drop in order to catch the lead pursuer with a downward vertical cut. As he stepped off the tree branch however, one of the other pursuers looked up and shouted a warning.

"Back! There's someone in the trees!"

The lead pursuer jumped back at the warning. Less than a second later Naruto landed on the forest floor, his vertical cut slashing through empty air where the lead pursuer had been only a moment before. Both Naruto and the hostile Genin then took several wary steps backwards to reassess the situation.

"Sorry, they saw me," Haku whispered as she moved up behind the blond. "The one who yelled has an enhanced sense of smell I think, he was the one who first noticed me."

"Not your fault. It happens," Naruto replied.

The other two foreign Genin caught up to the first pursuer. He seemed to be the leader of the group; at a hand gesture from him they fanned out to Naruto and Haku's left. The blond's eyes narrowed in suspicion as he wondered why they didn't spread out on both sides.

His question was answered less than minute later when he heard another series of rustling sounds. That gave way to another three-man Genin team emerging from the forest undergrowth. With another hand gesture from the lead pursuer, the new arrivals fanned out to Naruto's right. Together, the six foreign Genin formed a half circle around the blond and his teammate.

"You guys working together?" Naruto asked as he saw that their hitai-ate all bore the four vertical line symbol of Amegakure.

The leader chuckled. "Just using whatever advantage we can. It's not our fault if Konoha's ninja aren't smart enough to think of something like this."

"Unlike you guys, Konoha's ninja have no need of underhanded tricks," The blond remarked lightly. "I guess Ame really is as weak as everyone says."

Naruto had actually never heard anything about Amegakure. Konoha's ninja academy primarily focused on the five great hidden villages, and only mentioned the minor ones in passing. He was hoping however that he could get them angry with the remark. With the way the odds looked, he and Haku needed every advantage they could get.

Some of the other Ame Genin bristled visibly at the comment, but the leader brushed it off with a loud laugh. "It doesn't matter what you think. It's six on two, and soon we'll show you just how good we are."

A light tapping at the back of Naruto's neck announced Shino's presence to the blond. He held his posture still and his face impassive to disguise the relief he felt, keeping his eyes focused on the Ame leader even as he mentally decoded the messenger bug's tapping. The message was simple; the bug user was hidden in the forest behind him and asking for directions.

The blond quickly considered his options. He could call his teammate in to prepare for the inevitable fight, but they would still be at a two to one disadvantage. Worse, if they had two fighters who could keep Haku and Shino engaged then he would find himself at a four to one disadvantage against the rest. No, there had to be a better way.

The leader didn't seem to know about Shino's presence, and the one with the enhanced sense of smell hadn't said anything or made a gesture to indicate that he had noticed anyone new. Naruto realized he could work with the element of surprise his hidden teammate posed. If he could separate their opponents, Haku's Kekkei Genkai and Shino's unexpected presence would make them more than a match for a single team of Genin. Meanwhile all he had to do was hold the other team off until they returned to help.

The only problem was communicating the plan in his mind to his teammates without alerting their opponents.

He took his left hand off the hilt of his wooden sword and moved it to his left pants pocket for one of his storage scrolls. Just before his hand reached the pocket he briefly passed it behind his hip, using his body to hide the hand signal he was sending. He knew that Shino would be watching him intently for just such a signal; he hoped that Haku would catch it as well.

The Ame Genin would get suspicious if he kept his hand behind his hip too long, so he sent the simplest message he could and hoped that his teammates would understand.

_Stay away. Separate. Help Haku._

The hand signal finished, Naruto slipped his left hand into his pants pocket and pulled out a small storage scroll. The Ame Genin tensed as he flicked it open and activated the seal, but relaxed again when he tossed aside the now-empty scroll and grabbed the wooden sword that had popped out of it in one motion. It seemed that they didn't think he was much more of a threat with a second sword.

"Should I go?" Haku asked in a low voice from behind him.

Naruto simply nodded in reply. He kept his eyes locked on the Ame Genin leader, but the slight current of moving air against the exposed skin on his neck and the rustling somewhere behind and to his right told him that his raven-haired teammate had made her move.

"After her!" barked the leader.

The second team of Ame Genin turned and left the clearing in a run to chase after Haku. The heavy stomping noises they made as they moved through the underbrush were a sharp contrast to the light sounds that had accompanied his female teammate's passage through the same spot moments before.

The leader then gestured with both hands to either side of Naruto. The two remaining Ame Genin moved to surround the blond in response.

"That was a dumb move," the Ame leader said with a smirk. "It's still three-to-one odds, but now you can't even watch each other's backs."

Naruto shrugged, returning the smirk with his best imitation of one of Anko's demented grins. "I suppose three-to-one odds are about what it takes for nobodies from some loser village to handle a real ninja."

* * *

Haku took a quick glance behind her as she moved through the forest at her best speed. The three Ame shinobi that were pursuing her hadn't gotten any closer since the chase started. She knew she could outrun them. She had been able to keep ahead of all the Ame Genin after they discovered her presence, and the group chasing her now was the slower of the two teams. Running indefinitely wasn't an option however; she needed to put the three behind her down so she could return and help Naruto.

The forest thinned around her as she ran on. She saw that the greenery broke a short distance ahead into a clear area around a small brook. That was an ideal place for her to make her stand. Although she could draw ambient moisture to use for her Kekkei Genkai, having a ready body of water available allowed her to use her jutsu with much less chakra and much greater results.

Haku crossed the brook with a single chakra-enhanced leap before turning to face her pursuers. She didn't have long to wait. Less than a minute after she had crossed the brook the three Ame Genin emerged from the forest on the other side.

"What's the matter little girl?" the tallest one stepped forward and asked in an arrogant tone. "Finally realized it's useless to run?"

She didn't rely, instead using the time to examining her opponents. The one who had spoken was the tallest of the three and looked to be nearly twenty years old. He was attired in some sort of odd blue and gray bodysuit with a dull green raincoat on top, and sticking out above his shoulders on either side were what looked like umbrella handles.

The other two Ame Genin looked like twins. They were both around her height and looked to be about her age as well, and wore the same blue and gray body suit as the tallest one. The only thing the ice maiden could see that distinguished the two was that one wore a pair of brass knuckles while the other had a pair of lightly tinted goggles on.

"Are ya deaf or something? Bro asked ya a question!" the one with brass knuckles yelled as he brought his fists together with a loud metallic clang.

Haku turned to him briefly before returning her gaze to the tallest one. "I'm sorry. I have to defeat you now so I can return and help my teammate."

The brass knuckles twin growled and stepped forward, but the tall one with the raincoat put an arm out to restrain him. His hands then went to the two handles protruding from his shoulders.

"You think you can beat us all? You really think you're something special don't you, Konoha bitch?" he asked as he slung the umbrellas forward to snap their olive-colored wax paper canopies open. "Well I'm going to make you pay for underestimating the shinobi of Amegakure!"

His arms jerked up, launching the two umbrellas high into the air. Then he brought both hands together before him in a series of seals.

"Ninpou: Senbon no Ame!"

Haku watched as the umbrellas began to spin in midair, as if being suspended by some invisible string that was unwinding itself. A second later a literal rain of senbon fell out of the umbrellas' canopies at her.

She quickly dropped to one knee and brought her hand down to touch the water of the brook beside her. With a quick infusion of chakra into the brook, a thin sheet of water followed as she pulled her hand back up and over her head.

"Koori no Tate!" she called out.

The sheet of water solidified into a curved pane of ice protecting her front and sides, with the upper surface arcing back to covering her from high attacks as well.

The rain of senbon struck everywhere at once. The ones that fell wide of the mark crashed thunderously around Haku, throwing up clumps of dirt and geysers of water where they landed. The senbon that struck the chakra enhanced ice shield bounced off however, leaving little more than small cracks along its surface.

"What the hell?" the tall Ame Genin mumbled in wonderment.

Through the translucent body of the thin ice shield protecting her, Haku could make out what appeared to be a cloud of blackness converging inside the forest just behind the Ame team. She hoped that was Shino making his move and not some new unknown threat.

Working on that assumption, she pressed the palm of her right hand against the inside surface of the ice shield.

"Kudake," she whispered.

On her command the shield shattered, sending hundreds of ice shards flying towards the Ame team in a large spread. Two of them instinctively brought their hands up to protect their face, but the one with goggles was too stunned by the unexpected technique to react.

Though the Ame team didn't realize it, the ice shards moved too slowly to cause any serious injuries. The technique had been meant as a distraction instead. Haku pulled a trio of senbon with her left hand and threw them at the Genin with the goggles in one fluid motion, using the ice shards to hide the projectile attack. The senbon struck the surprised foreign ninja on the neck, dropping him instantly. At the same time the hovering black cloud just inside the forest moved and dropped on the one with the brass knuckles, confirming her suspicions that it was Shino's doing. The Ame ninja's brief scream of panic was abruptly cut off when some of the bugs moved inside his open mouth.

The ice maiden dashed across the brook at the last remaining Ame ninja. Seeing Shino approaching from the opposite side, she slung a pair of senbon mid-stride with an underhand motion at the tall umbrella user as a distraction. The Ame Genin batted the senbon away and then blocked her follow-up low kick, but couldn't turn fast enough to defend himself against Shino's attack. The bug user's elbow strike fell squarely on the back of his neck and dropped him to one knee. Haku's subsequent finger strike against the carotid artery on the side of his neck rendered him unconscious.

The ice maiden stepped back to survey the scene. Two of the Ame shinobi, the umbrella user and the one wearing goggles, had been knocked out. The third one though, the one with the brass knuckles that Shino had dropped a cloud of bugs on, was on the ground shaking and whimpering with a thin line of white foam dribbling out of his mouth.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked.

"I commanded several of my bugs to crawl inside his mouth and down into his stomach during the attack," Shino said casually. "He's experiencing the effects of the poison that they carried."

Haku shuddered involuntarily. She didn't mind fighting alongside Shino's allies or having one of his messenger bugs tap on her neck. But something like that was too creepy for her. As useful as the tactic had been in this case, she was glad he never got the chance to do that to her during their fight in Wave Country.

"You can make poisonous bugs?" she finally asked.

The bug user shook his head and pulled a small vial out of his jacket. It was half-full with a light purple liquid.

"My clan has records of highly skilled members who were capable of that in the past, but I do not know of any Aburame who has that ability now. It's a technique I would like to rediscover or reinvent at some point in the future, but for now I'm using liquid poison applied on selected Kikaichu."

"Is he going to be ok? I mean, is the poison deadly?"

"It's a nonlethal compound," Shino replied. "He'll be unconscious for an hour, and then vomit regularly throughout the next day or two, but there should be no permanent harmful effects."

The ice maiden nodded in understanding. "Well, it looks like these guys are down for the time being. Let's hurry back and see if Naruto needs our help."

* * *

Naruto watched his three opponents carefully, looking for clues as to their preferred fighting styles. They had him surrounded, but for the moment were content to circle him while staying near the edge of the roughly circular forest clearing. He didn't mind them taking their time; the longer they waited before attacking, the less he would have to defend himself. All he had to do was hold out until his teammates returned. If he could take these guys down however, so much the better.

The leader was more than a head taller than the blond and powerfully built. He wore tight black pants but a loose gray shirt with long sleeves. As the light breeze that managed to make its way through the forest's canopy stirred the garment into motion, Naruto saw the outlines of what looked forearm guards and some sort of body armor underneath the loose fabric. He pegged the leader as a close combat type based on that information.

The one with the enhanced sense of smell had similar clothing, but his shirt was tight to the body. He wore several pouches and kunai holsters around his body, which suggested he preferred to stay at range. The low crouching posture he adopted and the way he held a kunai in a backhanded grip indicated another close combatant however.

The third Ame Genin was markedly thinner than the other two, and wore a red shirt over loose blue pants. He also had some sort of white scarf wrapped around his neck, with its two ends trailing off to fall behind his right shoulder. Naruto also noticed that his fighting stance was a bit off balance and the fingernails on his twitching fingers were slightly long. Judging by the lack of weapons pouches, the blond immediately tagged him as a jutsu specialist who preferred to stay at range. Like most close combat specialists, Naruto had learned long ago to obsessively trim his fingernails short. One experience with a slipped block leading to a torn fingernail during academy sparring sessions had taught him the value of that practice. The scarf was another clue as well; close combat fighters typically shunned any piece of loose clothing that could be grabbed and used to pull them around. Especially ones that could also be used to easily choke them.

Naruto put his right foot forward and settled into a balanced stance facing the leader, but with his the left side of his body turned away so that he presented a right side profile to the taller Genin. His right hand held a wooden sword in a one-handed version of the base kenjutsu stance, hilt near the right side of his hip and tip of the sword pointed at the leader's throat. His left hand, fully extended to his left and slightly behind, held a second sword in a horizontal defensive position guarding against the Ame Genin with the enhanced sense of smell. The jutsu Genin was to his right and slightly behind.

The blond turned his head back and forth in small movements, keeping track of the two enemies on his flanks out with his peripheral vision. With the genjutsu covering his left eye active though, the Ame Genin would think that he was only able to keep track of the leader and the jutsu specialist with his one eye; with just a single right eye he would have to turn his head completely around to see the enhanced smell guy.

As the Ame team circled around and he shifted his posture to keep in alignment with the leader, Naruto noted that the enhanced smell guy was moving smoothly in a low crouching position with very little bobbing up and down. He decided that the level of balance and body control this showed marked the enhanced smell guy as a close combat specialist.

With the last piece of the puzzle in place, Naruto came to a quick conclusion about how they would attack him. He decided it was unlikely that they would try to attack him all at once. There was too much risk of getting in each other's ways, especially with one of them staying at range throwing jutsu. Instead the enhanced smell guy attacking first to take advantage of his supposed blind side seemed to be the most likely alternative. The leader would probably follow after a delay, to press the attack in case the enhanced smell guy's attempt failed.

The last guy was more problematic, as Naruto had no idea what kind of jutsu he could use. The blond guessed though that he would either use a jutsu to coincide with the enhanced smell guy's initial attack, or throw one just beforehand as a distraction to give the other Ame Genin a better opening to make his move.

Naruto's question was answered as the jutsu guy's hands moved through the series of seals. Out of the corner of his left eye he could see that the enhanced smell guy was holding his position for the moment. His body was tense though, ready to spring the second the jutsu was completed.

"Dokuhaku no Jutsu!" the third guy called out in a clear voice.

'_Well, that was helpful of him,_' the blond thought as he turned his body out of the way of the thin stream of greenish liquid from the jutsu guy's poisoned spit technique. Anko's harsh but effective training methods had given him the ability to evade regular projectile attacks using the minimum necessary motion.

Naruto continued turning his body until he was facing the enhanced smell guy, and then stepped aggressively towards him with swords raised. The Ame Genin paused momentarily in his advance, having not expecting the Konoha blond to detect his movement let alone turn to attack. This gave Naruto the opportunity to parry the Ame Genin's kunai with his left hand sword before stepping around to the other ninja's back. Seeing the leader advance even as the jutsu guy prepared another spit technique, the blond dropped the sword in his left hand in order to grab the enhanced smell guy's collar from behind. He then roughly jerked the Ame Genin in front of him as a shield.

The thin stream of green liquid from the jutsu guy's mouth struck Naruto's improvised shield in the face, causing him to shriek in pain as the poisoned liquid began sizzling against his skin. Naruto then turned and slammed the end of his sword's hilt into the base of the Ame Genin's neck, abruptly cutting his scream off and sending him tumbling into the leader. At the same time he brought his left hand up in a seal while molding chakra and forming the words in his mind.

'_Kirigakure no Jutsu._'

Naruto pushed off with a chakra enhanced jump as he silently executed the technique. He flipped in midair to turn upside down before planting his feet against the bottom of a tree branch thirty feet above the forest floor. Once he had anchored himself in place with a steady stream of chakra through his feet, he looked down to see the effects of his jutsu.

After Haku taught him the Hidden Mist technique, he had spent a great deal of time experimenting until he found just the right amount of chakra to use for the mist thickness he wanted. The three Ame Genin would not be able to see far beyond the reach of their own arms unless they had some special visual ability he didn't know about. With the enhanced vision his left eye provided though, he was just able to see their blurry outlines beneath him. The leader and the jutsu guy were moving to stand back to back in an attempt to cover each other, while the enhanced smell guy was passed out on the forest floor beside them.

Naruto briefly considered dropping all his explosive tags on them at once. That would certainly end the fight in one stroke, but he was afraid of accidentally incinerating their scroll. He decided that he would have to end things with physical attacks instead.

Keeping his left hand on the base of his wooden sword's hilt, the blond slid his right hand up the shaft of the weapon until he was gripping it roughly halfway along its length. Then he cut the flow of chakra to his feet and pushed off the branch with a yell. As the blond hurtled back down toward the forest floor, he raised the sword above his head while flipping in midair so his feet were pointed downwards once more.

The yell had its intended effect; the leader looked up to see Naruto falling on him with a vertical cut readied and instinctively raised both arms up in a cross block. Instead of bringing the sword down in a cutting arc however, Naruto landed with his knees bent right in front of the leader while pulling the sword straight down along his body. The Ame Genin realized his mistake and brought his arms back down to defend, but the blond's follow-up attack was faster.

Using his right hand to guide the wooden sword, Naruto straightened his posture while thrusting the weapon diagonally upwards with his left. The point of the sword shot through the gap in the taller ninja's guard and struck his throat with a wet thud.

As the leader doubled over while coughing and choking for breath, Naruto was on the move once more. The blond stepped to the left past the leader's hunched form and made eye contact with the last remaining member of the Ame team. He could see the fear and hesitation in the jutsu guy's eyes even as the other ninja's hands were fumbling a series of seals together. After all, he had just taken out the other two members of the Ame team in the space of less than a minute.

Naruto quickly pulled together some chakra and threw it into a technique to interrupt whatever the Ame Genin was trying to do. This time however, he sharply barked the jutsu's name to increase its effect.

"Kanashibari no Jutsu!"

The first time Anko used the Temporary Paralysis Technique on him, Naruto had been left virtually unable to move for over a minute. He wasn't able to get that level of effect yet, but in this situation he only needed the few seconds that he was able to manage.

The jutsu guy's hands froze in a half-formed seal, the muscles of his body locking into rigidity from Naruto's technique. In the short time it took the Ame-nin to shake himself loose from the effects, Naruto had changed the grip on his sword and pivoted on his left leg to cut the distance between them in half. Another step brought the blond in range. He brought his sword across his body in a horizontal cut, catching the surprised Ame Genin on the hands. The foreign ninja howled in pain as the impact broke his half-extended fingers, but the sword's return stroke against the side of his head silenced him and dropped him to the ground in an unconscious heap.

No longer needing to disguise his movement, Naruto ended his Kirigakure no Jutsu and allowed the mist to disperse. He then turned toward the leader, still hunched over on the ground and struggling for breath from the thrust to the throat. A strike to the back of his neck knocked him unconscious as well. Even though the enhanced smell guy was already out, Naruto moved over and hit him again just in case.

The blond instinctively brought his sword up in a guard in response to the sound of rustling bushes at the north edge of the clearing, but lowered it again when he saw Haku and Shino emerging from the forest undergrowth.

"You guys ok?" he asked.

"The other three have been dealt with," Shino replied. "We came back to see if you needed help."

Naruto shook his head. "They were pretty lightweight. Watch over these guys while I search them?"

Haku and Shino moved forward to stand guard over the unconscious Ame Genin while Naruto methodically rifled through their pockets and pouches. The kunai, shuriken, and other assorted equipment he found were set aside, but after some thought he decided to take only the majority of the resulting pile. With the Ame team's injuries, leaving them a few weapons seemed like the decent thing to do. He also found, to his pleased surprise, that the enhanced smell and jutsu specialist members of the Ame team had decided to bring their wallets with them for some reason.

"I'll split this with you guys later. The euipment too, I know a secondhand shop that pays decent prices for used ninja gear," said the blond as he transferred the wallets' contents into his own pocket.

"You're robbing them?" Haku asked.

Naruto shrugged. "The way I see it, they attacked us so we're entitled to their stuff. Besides, I'm saving money to buy a steel sword. I'm sure if they were conscious they'd be happy to donate in exchange for me not killing them."

The ice maiden raised an eyebrow at her teammate's words. She didn't quite know how to reply to such a justification for blatant thievery however. Instead she turned to look at Shino, but the bug user simply answered her with a loose shrug.

"Found it, right one too!" the blond declared in triumph as he pulled a Heaven scroll out of the leader's loose shirt.

"Now that we have both scrolls, should we leave the other team and head directly for the tower?" Shino asked.

"Let's go loot them too," Naruto replied. "Maybe some of them brought their wallets with them."

Haku gave her blond teammate an incredulous look before sighing in resignation. "Why not? I guess we can use some of that money for a team dinner at a nice restaurant or something."

Naruto patted her on the shoulder as he passed. "That's the spirit!"

* * *

Moving through the Forest of Death carefully to avoid any further encounters with other Genin teams, Team Eight arrived at the tower around dusk on the first day. As Naruto led his team out of the forest cover towards the tower's door, he saw another Konoha team approaching from a different direction.

The blond raised a hand in greeting. "Hey guys."

"Looks like you guys made it too. Have much trouble getting here?" Kiba asked as he neared, with Hinata and Sasuke a few paces behind.

"Not really," answered Naruto. "We came across a pair of Ame teams early on. They were working together, but we took them out without much trouble."

The dog user nodded. "Same for us. It took us a long time to actually find anyone. When we finally spotted a Suna team though, we got the drop on them and beat them easily. Good thing they had the right scroll."

"We should probably head inside first," Shino suggested. "As long as we're outside the tower we're still potential targets."

"You're right, let's go," the blond replied as he walked to the tower's large double doors.

As Naruto pushed at one of the doors, Sasuke moved to open the other. The two Konoha teams then filed into the tower together.

"Where is everyone?" Kiba wondered as his eyes roamed around the empty hall they found themselves in. "You think we're the first to make it here?"

"Could be, the test is supposed to last for four more days," Naruto replied.

"Maybe the ones who came before are elsewhere in the tower, or have left already since they passed?" Haku asked from the back of the group.

The blond shrugged. "I guess that could be it too."

With one final look around, Kiba turned to face the others. "So what now?"

Hinata lifted one arm to point at the far wall. "There's something written there, maybe it tells us what to do?"

The six Konoha Genin moved to the far end of the hall and crowded around to read the board hanging on the wall. After a few seconds Kiba leaned back and scratched at the side of his face.

"I don't get it. What's this stuff about Heaven and Earth not existing, and what's with the missing word there?"

Sasuke pulled an Earth scroll out of his pocket. "It's probably related to these. They wouldn't have named them Heaven and Earth scrolls for no reason."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Let me open our spare Heaven scroll to see what's inside. We can figure out what to do from there."

The blond pulled the scroll out of his pocket and unrolled it, holding it with both arms extended so the others could get a good look. The weaving circular design on the inside layer of the scroll was obviously a seal of some kind, though the pattern was far more advanced than anything he had experimented with as part of making explosive tags or storage scrolls. Some parts seemed similar to the activation elements of a storage scroll, but the design lacked the characteristic chakra constructs that formed the container element of such scrolls. The oddest thing however was that the entire sealing matrix on the scroll seemed incomplete, as if its creator only drew half of every seal element.

"It looks like a summoning scroll of some kind," Sasuke remarked from one side.

Naruto turned his head to look at the Uchiha prodigy. "You've had experience with summoning scrolls?"

"No, but I've seen pictures of them in the Uchiha clan library's books," Sasuke replied.

"You're probably right," the blond said, "but it looks like the seals were deliberately left half completed. I think we have to open both scrolls together to trigger them."

Naruto laid his open Heaven scroll on the ground before him, and then accepted the Earth scroll that Shino held out and unrolled it on top. A thin wisp of smoke rose from the central seal design of the top scroll. The summoning element of the seal triggered a second later, producing a loud explosion and a large cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the blond saw a smiling Kurenai standing on top of the scrolls.

"Congratulations on making it out of the forest so quickly. I knew the three of you could do it, but I didn't think you'd get here so fast," Team Eight's Jounin instructor said.

Naruto glanced to his right at Team Seven. They had moved to the other side of the room and activated their own scrolls to summon their one-eyed Jounin instructor.

"Are we the first to get here?" the blond asked as he turned back to his own sensei.

Kurenai shook her head. "The second. A Suna team made it in a couple hours ago. It was the Kazekage's children, so they're probably better trained than the rest."

"What happens now?" Shino asked.

"Since you three got here so quickly, you can rest or train until the second part of the exam officially ends," Kurenai replied. "There's an underground tunnel that leads straight out of the training ground. The third part of the Chunin exam is individual combat, but depending on how many teams pass this part there may be a preliminary round first."

She turned to a side door and gestured for her team to follow. "Come on, I'll show you the way out."

"One second Kurenai," Team Seven's copy-nin Jounin instructor called out from across the room. "I'd like to speak with Naruto for a moment?"

The blond looked at Kurenai questioningly, but she only gave him a shrug in return. As his sensei seemed to have no objections he moved away from his team and followed the one-eyed Jounin to a secluded corner of the hall.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked uncertainly. He had slept through the academy's etiquette classes during first year and didn't know if he was supposed to call another team's instructor sensei.

"I just wanted to make sure there aren't any remaining hard feelings between you and Sasuke after your fight a couple months ago. I had words with him as soon as we returned to Konoha, but with the way our two teams' schedules conflicted I haven't had the chance to talk with you until now. He was in the wrong for deliberately provoking you that day."

Naruto shrugged. "We came to an understanding. Besides, no matter what he said it was stupid of me to let myself be taunted into doing something rash."

"I'm glad to see you've managed to learn something from the whole experience, that's a valuable lesson that even some experienced shinobi don't understand. My students told me you apologized to each of them afterwards."

"It wasn't a big deal. Kurenai-sensei ordered me to."

The one-eyed Jounin put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "What matters is that you did, and my students say your apologies were sincere. It shows your strength of character that you were willing to do that after what happened. Your father would be proud."

The blond's head jerked up to lock gazes with the Jounin. "You knew my dad?"

The mask covering the lower part of Kakashi's face shifted, but Naruto couldn't tell what kind of an expression the one-eyed Jounin was making beneath it.

"I'm sorry. I don't know who your father is," Kakashi replied. "But I'm sure that he would have been proud to see that you're growing into a fine young man. Anyway, you should probably get back to Kurenai now."

Naruto gave the Jounin a quizzical look before nodding and turning to catch up with his team.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I didn't forget Orochimaru.

Updates are unlikely for the next two weeks. It turns out that my corrupt hard drive issue two weeks ago was the precursor to the drive physically dying. Until I manage to acquire a replacement my productivity will be pretty curtailed. It was only with some difficulty that I managed to get this chapter finished and upped.

This feels like a somewhat disjointed chapter. I really didn't want to spend words on things like the rules announcements that basically didn't diverge from canon in a meaningful way. The end result was jumping from scene to scene cutting in only when things were different enough to warrant a closer look.

5/21/10: First Upload


	12. The Words I'd Use

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Twelve: The Words I'd Use…

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Five days after they first set foot in the Forest of Death, Team Eight made the journey back to the training ground's central tower through the underground tunnel. They each carried a full array of combat gear with them. By the third day of the exam enough teams had already made it to the tower to make a preliminary elimination round necessary, so they knew they would have to fight at least once before the day was out.

Six full teams had made it through the Forest of Death in time to qualify. Naruto noted with some surprise that, including his own, four of the teams were from Konoha, Rock Lee's team from the previous year's graduating class plus all nine rookie Genin from his own year. Both Lee and Sasuke's teams looked well-rested and ready for the coming fights. In contrast though, the Ino-Shika-Chou trio was dirty and disheveled, with even the non-Nara members of the team slouching with tired postures. The blond guessed that they had made it out of the forest only hours before the deadline.

There was the Oto team that had caused a commotion just before the written exam by attacking a Konoha Genin with glasses; they kept to themselves and gave anyone who looked in their direction hard glares in return. The last team was from Suna. He recalled his sensei mentioning that they were the Kazekage's three children. The tallest and biggest one was dressed in some sort of strange black full body suit, with a large wrapped bundle strapped to his back and his face decorated in patterns of purple paint. The kunoichi of the group, a blonde with four spiky short ponytails and what appeared to be a gigantic metal folding fan slung across her back, looked to be the oldest member of the team. Naruto noted though that the body language of both indicated that they deferred to the third member of the team, which was odd as the redhead with a gourd on his back was the shortest and youngest of the Kazekage's children.

The Genin were gathered in a large hall, dominated by an enormous statue situated at one end of the room depicting a pair of hands in a ram seal. A group of Konoha Jounin and Tokubetsu Jounin, arranged in neat rows flanking the Hokage himself, stood beneath the statue facing the assembled Genin. At a signal from Sarutobi a sickly-looking ninja stepped forward from the group. Introducing himself through a series of coughs as Gekkou Hayate, proctor of the preliminary rounds, he briefly went through the rules and procedures before swinging his arm back in a broad sweeping gesture.

* * *

Every eye in the room turned to the electronic signboard above the statue that dominated the north end of the large hall. At a verbal command from Hayate the display came to life, flashing through names so quickly that Naruto couldn't make the individual ones out. Finally the display slowed and then stopped on a pair of names.

"The first match is Inuzuka Kiba versus Dosu Kinuta," the sickly Tokubetsu Jounin announced. "Everyone else please head for the observation areas on either side of the room so that the match can begin."

Naruto quietly asked for Haku and Shino to wait with him as the other Genin began heading for the observation areas on either side of the hall. Knowing the blond's intent, his teammates remained in place until he led them to join the tail end of the group moving towards the eastern balcony. As they were the last to ascend the staircase Team Eight found themselves on the southern end of the upper walkway. The position provided a less than ideal angle for observing the matches, but also meant that Naruto could keep the left side of his face turned away from everyone else in the room. Although he was fairly confident about his genjutsu being able to fool the Genin in the room, he had no desire to put it to the test against the Jounin and Tokubetsu Jounin overseeing the event.

The blond pushed his hitai-ate up just enough for left eye to look down on the match area below. With his head tilted downward and being shorter than every other Genin in the test, he was confident that even if someone from the opposite balcony managed to penetrate his genjutsu they still wouldn't see his eye. The only one in the room who was at a good angle to see it was Hayate, but he guessed that the exam proctor would be too busy officiating the matches to look around the room's upper balconies.

Naruto watched as Kiba squared off against his opponent, a heavily bandaged ninja who wore an Oto headband. Layers of white wrapping covered Dosu's head, leaving only the right eye exposed. His poncho-like attire had extra long sleeves that went past the length of his arms.

"He's wearing something on his right arm. I can't make out the exact shape though with how loose the sleeves are," Naruto mumbled.

"Forearm guards?" Haku suggested without turning her eyes away from the two combatants.

"Doubt it," the blond replied. "Normally you'd wear them in pairs, and there's nothing on his left arm. Besides, whatever it is looks too rounded."

On the floor of the large hall, Hayate looked over each of the two combatants before moving his hands together in a signal. "Well then, please begin."

"I don't know what kind of trick you used on Kabuto before the first exam," Kiba declared as he set Akamaru down to one side, "but I'm not going to fall for it."

"Very confident of you. Why don't you come closer and see just how good my trick is?" Dosu replied.

The brown-haired Inuzuka flung his right arm outward, sending several kunai flying at Dosu with the motion. He then pushed off with a growl, rushing at his opponent in the wake of his thrown weapons. Dosu batted the kunai away with the long sleeve covering his right arm. As the dog user was trailing his thrown weapons with his right fist cocked back, the bandaged Oto-nin then brought his arms up to block the expected high punch.

Kiba's posture had been a feint however. He approached and leaned right as if to deliver a right hook, then brought his left leg around against the side of Dosu's leading foot in a sweep. Left momentarily unbalanced, the Oto-nin was unable to protect himself as Kiba leapt into a spinning outside crescent kick. The dog user's right foot slammed into the right side of Dosu's face and sent him sprawling.

"He caught me with that a couple times at the academy," Naruto remarked to his teammates. "With one eye, it's hard to see the sweep when you're that close."

The brown-haired Inuzuka chased after his opponent, jumping up into a forward flip to bring his leg around for a heel drop on Dosu's head. The Oto-nin responded by bringing his arms over his head in a cross block to catch the leg. As the bandaged ninja pushed up against the leg, Kiba likewise pushed against the block and flipped back away from his opponent. He landed squarely on both feet, but then lost his balance. He managed a few unsteady steps backwards before dropping to one knee.

"What the hell was that?" Kiba demanded.

Dosu pulled up his right sleeve, exposing the rounded metallic device worn around his right forearm. "This thing can create and amplify sounds. By attacking your ears with sound waves above a certain frequency, I can make you lose your balance or even suffer great pain."

The bandaged Oto-nin then rushed forward with his right arm pulled back for a strike. Rather than meet the attack head on, the dog user leapt away while dropping a pair of smoke bombs to temporarily distract his opponent. Kiba landed unsteadily on his feet, but managed to keep his balance.

"Akamaru!" the dog user yelled as he crouched and tossed a soldier pill.

The small white puppy ran for its master, jumping in midair to catch the pill in its mouth. Another leap landed it on top of Kiba's back, its fur already starting to turn red from the effects of the pill.

"Gijuu Ninpo: Juujin Bunshin!"

Akamaru transformed into a feral-looking version of Kiba with a puff of smoke. The dog user himself took on some bestial characteristics, resulting in master and dog looking like identical copies of each other.

As the two separated to circle Dosu, Naruto found that he could still pick Kiba out. Though moving on all fours had lessened his balance problems, to Naruto's sensitive eyes there was still a slight difference between the way the Akamaru Bunshin and the original moved.

"Gatsuuga!" both feral Kiba yelled in unison.

The Akamaru Bunshin moved first, with the real Kiba following half a second behind. Dosu jumped to his left to evade the first attack even as the transformed dog veered away just before reaching its target. The bandaged Oto-nin then turned to face the second feral Kiba and threw a right punch right at the center of the rapidly spinning form.

Rather than evading the punch or continuing his own attack, Kiba broke from the Gatsuuga and grabbed Dosu's right arm. The Oto-nin's left eye widened in surprise. He brought his left arm over to pummel at Kiba's hunched form as his right channeled chakra into the sound weapon in an attempt to knock the feral-looking Konoha Genin off.

"Now!" the original Kiba yelled, clinging on harder as he began to feel the nausea-inducing effects of Dosu's sonic device.

The Akamaru Bunshin threw itself into a second Gatsuuga. With Kiba latched onto his arm, Dosu was unable to evade and took the brunt of his attack on the left side of his back. The bandaged Oto-nin crumpled to the floor, knocked unconscious by the force of the attack. Once he was sure that his opponent was out for good, Kiba staggered back a few steps before falling down heavily into a sitting position.

"The winner of the first match is Inuzuka Kiba!" Hayate announced.

A medical team rushed in to assess the combatants. Dosu was immediately taken away on a stretcher. After a quick examination the lead medic ordered a stretcher for Kiba as well, and forced him to lay in it for a trip to the medical ward despite the dog user's loud protestations.

* * *

Once Kiba and Akamaru had been taken away Hayate signaled for the next match.

"The second match, Kankuro versus Akimichi Chouji!" the sickly Tokubetsu Genin called out as the electronic display settled.

Naruto examined Kankuro closely as the two combatants made their way down to the fighting area. He felt that there was something strange in the way the Suna-nin moved, but couldn't quite pin it down.

"Let's have a good match," Chouji said in a jovial tone as he stepped up to face his opponent. "It's nice to meet another big-boned ninja."

"Big-boned? Are you calling me fat?" Kankuro asked accusingly.

The large Akimichi brought his hands up in a conciliatory gesture. "Of course not! There's no need to get angry, I'm just saying that there aren't enough big guys like us being ninja."

"Big guys? You… you bastard! I'm not a fatty, you are!" Kankuro yelled as he slung the heavy wrapped bundle on his back to the ground beside him.

Naruto could see the female member of the Suna team, the blonde with the four spiky ponytails, openly snickering on the other observation balcony. Weren't they supposed to be siblings or something?

In the match area Chouji ground his teeth together as his expression shifted into righteous indignation. "I'm not fat, I'm big boned!"

"It's the same thing!" Kankuro cried.

"Shut up! Big-boned banzai!"

The large Akimichi slammed his hands together into a ram seal, the sound of the impact reverberating loudly throughout the hall.

"Baika no Jutsu!" Chouji yelled.

His body rapidly expanded in all directions as the Multi-Size Technique took effect. In the blink of an eye he had doubled in height and expanded his girth several times, and looked less like a big-boned boy and more like a giant fleshy ball with a head and stumpy limbs.

"What the hell?" the face-painted Suna-nin asked with a gaping mouth. "You can do something like that and you say you're not fat?

"I'm not fat!" Chouji insisted with a roar. "Nikudan Sensha!"

His head and limbs shrunk inside the oversized body with a pop. The rounded torso then began to spin in place in preparation for the Human Bullet Tank technique. After a moment of staring in shock at Chouji's unusual jutsu, Kankuro reached for the large bundle by his side even as the bandages that kept it wrapped began loosening on their own. He had only managed to grab a handful of loose wrapping however when Chouji made his move.

With a howl the oversized Akimichi threw his body forward. Freed from the chakra anchoring it in place, the ball-like torso launched at Kankuro with surprising speed. In response Kankuro opened his mouth impossibly wide and spat a pair of darts at Chouji's oncoming form. At the same time the last bits of wrapping fell off his large bundle to reveal an indistinct black form.

The darts struck Chouji with a pair of soft thuds. A second later his rounded torso impacted against Kankuro with a dry cracking noise. The momentum of the Nikudan Sensha carried him right through the Suna-nin and then over the black form that had been in the wrapped bundle, resulting in a wet squelching sound. His body then kept rolling until it struck the far wall of the hall, sending a cloud of dust and plaster into the air around him. Finally the Baika no Jutsu released to reveal a partially upside down and apparently unconscious Chouji, his back flat on the ground and his feet and hips leaned against the wall.

After some time had passed with neither Genin able to get up, Hayate moved over to examine Kankuro. First he toed aside several pieces of cracked wood around the Suna-nin's broken form, then stepped over to the unwrapped bundle and gently prodded it with one foot to elicit a groan of pain. He then made his way across the room to examine Chouji.

"It seems to be a double knockout," Hayate finally said. "Kankuro was a puppet all along, hiding his true body inside the bundle. Akimichi Chouji's attack destroyed the puppet and seems to have injured Kankuro to where he's no longer able to fight. On the other hand, Chouji's been rendered unconscious from the puppet's poisoned darts."

The Tokubetsu Jounin exam proctor allowed a few more seconds to pass, glancing back and forth at each fallen Genin in turn. When he was fully satisfied that neither were able to continue, he raised a hand to signal the medics while declaring the official result of the match with a raised voice.

"The match is a draw! As neither candidate managed a victory, both Kankuro and Akimichi Chouji are disqualified from advancing to the final stage."

On the eastern observation balcony, Haku cocked her head to one side as she watched the medics rush in with a pair of stretchers.

"Well, that was…"

"Unexpected?" Shino suggested.

"Underwhelming?" Naruto offered.

"… interesting, I guess," Haku said neutrally. "I hope they're not too badly hurt though."

Naruto shrugged. "The exam proctor would probably have called the match right away if he thought that Chouji or that other guy had severe injuries."

* * *

On the floor the medic teams quickly carried both injured Genin away on stretchers. Naruto saw that the female Suna-nin with four spiky ponytails left her observation balcony to follow them, most likely to check on her brother's status. Once the floor was clear for another match Hayate signaled for the electronic signboard to display the next pair of names.

"Third match, Uchiha Sasuke versus Rock Lee!" he announced as he turned away from the signboard.

"Yosh!"

In his excitement at the announced matchup, Lee launched himself right off the observation balcony to land on the hall floor in a dramatic pose. The edge of Sasuke's lips curled up at the display. In response to his opponent's obvious eagerness, he decided to walk the length of the balcony and down the stairs in a casual stroll.

Naruto discreetly pulled his hitai-ate down as Sasuke approached, pushing it back up only when the Uchiha prodigy had made his way to the floor to stand opposite Lee. Even if Sasuke's Sharingan wasn't active yet, the blond didn't want to take any chances with his left eye being discovered. As he readjusted his hitai-ate, he saw that the Suna kunoichi had returned to her spot on the opposite balcony. She leaned over to whisper something into her shorter teammate's ear. Given that she had gone with the medics after the previous fight, she was probably telling her teammate and brother about their puppeteer sibling's condition. The redheaded boy with the giant gourd on his back did not respond in any way though.

Once Sasuke reached his starting spot, Lee thrust a finger forward forcefully as his lips pulled back into a wide grin with gleaming teeth. "Being matched against you has set my youthful spirit aflame, Uchiha Sasuke!"

Never having experienced the spandex-wearing taijutsu specialist's eccentricities before, the Uchiha prodigy could only furrow his brows in confusion. "What?"

"Like my teammate Hyuuga Neji, you come from a highly regarded family with a famous Kekkei Genkai. You were at the top of your graduation class, and you're widely considered to be the genius of your year. Having a chance to prove my nindo against you is everything I could have hoped for from this exam!"

"Being able to fight me means that much to you?" Sasuke asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Yes!" the spandex-clad Genin replied with vigor. "I'm not like you; I didn't have an easy path in life to becoming a ninja. I don't come from a clan and I don't have any special advantages. Everything I am comes from my own effort and determination. If I can defeat you, I will have proven that hard work can overcome any kind of natural genius!"

Sasuke chuckled, finally starting to understand the strange green Genin standing opposite him. "You have it all wrong, bowl-cut. You think that I don't have to work hard just because I have a bloodline?"

The Uchiha prodigy's face abruptly hardened, one hand slashing viciously through the air before him as if to dramatically underscore the sudden shift. "You think I don't know what it's like to be compared to a genius? Always striving to catch up while being told I'll never be good enough?"

His right hand stabbed into the kunai holster strapped to his leg to flick a kunai straight up by the ring on its end. An instant later his left hand shot forward and closed around the weapon's handle. His eyes shifted from their normal onyx color to a deep red hue, a single tomoe in the left eye and two in the right.

"I know what it is to work hard," Sasuke hissed through gritted teeth as his expression turned intensely hostile. "I don't care what you think of yourself or your determination. I'll show you what my hard work means to me."

"Yosh!" Lee replied energetically, completely unfazed by the change in his opponent's attitude. "We'll speak to each other with our fists then, and see which one of us truly exemplifies the spirit of hard work!"

The spandex-clad taijutsu specialist suddenly burst into movement, accelerating from a stationary posture to a full speed dash so rapidly that Sasuke was caught off guard. The Uchiha prodigy only had time to bring his arms across his chest before his opponent was within range. Lee threw a hard thrust kick that smashed straight into his crossed arms and sent him flying back from his starting position.

He flung his kunai blindly as his body hurtled backwards, hoping to temporarily distract Lee. Already on the move again, the taijutsu specialist neatly sidestepped the projectile before continuing his chase. He caught up just as Sasuke rolled back to his feet. The Uchiha prodigy managed to backpedal away from his spandex-clad opponent's opening low kick and then block the following high kick. Lee then transitioned from the high attack into a low foot sweep with a sharpness that caught the Sasuke by surprise and cleanly swept him off his feet. In the blink of an eye Lee had straightened again, pushing into a double palm attack so quickly that he struck before the Uchiha prodigy had landed from the sweep, sending the younger Genin flying back again.

Sasuke's flight ended as his back struck the wall beneath an observation balcony. He managed to wobble forward a few steps before dropping to his hands and knees, his mind and body unused to taking so many hard hits so quickly. Across from him Lee stood with his feet together and back held straight, one arm extended forward and flexed at the elbow so that the palm faced inward.

"You cannot defeat me, Sasuke-kun," the spandex-clad Genin said, "Someone who relies on the power of a bloodline can never beat one who achieves strength through pure hard work."

"We'll see about that," hissed Sasuke as he launched himself at the green spandex taijutsu specialist.

The two Konoha Genin attacked each other aggressively, Sasuke from his frustration at being beaten in the previous exchanges and Lee using the standard offensive approach of his Goken style. The Uchiha prodigy was unable to land anything, but took repeated strikes as the taijutsu specialist's attacks seemed to pass through his guard time and again.

The two finally separated after a few minutes of hard fighting. Sasuke was breathing heavily and rubbing at a forming bruise on his cheek. Lee, on the other hand, stood unmoving in nearly the same posture as before. The Uchiha prodigy reviewed the fight in his head as he stabilized his breathing. With the hand to hand approach not working so far, he decided to switch to a different tactic.

Sasuke sucked in a long, drawn out breath of air, filling his lungs to the point that his chest expanded visibly. His hands flashed through a long series of seals, ending with the first two fingers of each hand extended and the others clasped together.

"Katon: Goukyakuu no Jutsu!"

He formed a circle with the fingers of his right hand and blew the breath through it past tightly clenched lips. The chakra-infused air ignited once past his hand, billowing into a ball of fire aimed directly at Lee. The blazing sphere was so large that it completely hid his body from his opponent's view.

As he had no means of dispersing the fire jutsu or protecting himself from its scorching flames, the taijutsu specialist opted for evasion instead. He leapt away from the path of the fireball and dashed around it in a circular path to get to where Sasuke stood. When he reached the spot however the Uchiha prodigy was already gone. Instead he found a kunai embedded into the stone tile of the floor with an explosive tag attached to its handle.

With the tag already nearing the end of its burn, Lee only had time to throw his hands up to cover his face before it detonated. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Sasuke swung out from his hiding spot at the underside of the nearest observation balcony and flung a brace of kunai to distract the spandex-clad Genin. The Uchiha prodigy followed the missiles in, throwing a hard straight punch into his opponent's exposed abdomen. He continued with a series of attacks, but the taijutsu specialist was able to recover from the surprise and parry more and more of them until the assault was effectively neutralized.

Sasuke's movements suddenly changed, shifting from his normal smoothly transitioning motions into a more abrupt and rapid style. His attack patterns took on a different tone as well. Instead of the linear hand strikes he previously favored, his combos became predominantly quick circling leg attacks launched from many different angles interspersed with the occasional thrusting kick. The change put Lee off-balance mentally, and Sasuke's blows once more began slipping through his opponent's guard. He finished with a low-high-low sweeping combination into a double palm strike, using the same sequence that the taijutsu specialist had caught him with before.

The attacks struck true. Lee was more experienced in all aspects of taijutsu though, and was able to twist his body and shift his weight at the last moment to mitigate the effects of the blows. He managed to avoid being completely swept off his feet by Sasuke's combo, and the palm strike only sent him reeling backwards several steps.

"That was the combination I used on you earlier," the green spandex Genin pointed out as the corners of his mouth turned down into a slight frown.

The Uchiha prodigy smirked in return. "My Sharingan can see through and copy anything. You think working hard makes you automatically better than someone with a bloodline? Show me the results of your hard work. I'll take it for myself and use it to beat you."

"The abilities of the Uchiha clan are truly formidable," Lee said, "having your own strengths used against you is a frightening thing. But there's one thing you overlooked."

"What's that?"

"There are some things that even the vaunted eyes of the Uchiha clan cannot copy."

Sasuke laughed at Lee's words. "The only things my eyes can't copy are Kekkei Genkai. Have you suddenly developed a bloodline during our fight?"

The taijutsu specialist didn't reply. Instead he pushed his orange legwarmers down to reveal weights strapped onto his ankles. Flicking his fingers across their buckles to unlatch them, he pulled them off his legs and held them to each side.

"Weights?" Sasuke asked with a derisive snort. "Your secret weapon is weights? You think you can defeat me if you just move a little faster?"

Lee's arms jerked downward, slinging the weights down with force as he released his hold on them. They struck the stone floor with a resounding crash, creating a pair of small craters and throwing up a cloud of dust and debris. Partially obscured by the cloud, the taijutsu specialist's body suddenly blurred into motion with more swiftness than he had previously displayed. Sasuke was once again caught off guard by Lee's speed. His hands had barely twitched in response to the movement by the time the spandex-clad Genin had crossed the room to throw a hard spinning kick across his face from right to left.

The kick landed with enough force to lift Sasuke off his feet and send his body flying to the left. Lee followed immediately, moving with such speed that it seemed as if he simply faded from existence to reappear a fraction of a heartbeat later. Now directly in the path of Sasuke's flight, the taijutsu specialist met the Uchiha prodigy's body with a rib-crushing elbow to the side, reversing his momentum and sending him tumbling in the opposite direction. Once more Lee's figure blurred away. This time he reappeared on Sasuke's other side and threw a side thrust kick directly into the younger Leaf Genin's upper back near the shoulder blades.

Sasuke landed awkwardly on one shoulder and rolled away from his opponent. Once he had recovered into a crouch with his left arm clamped across the side of his throbbing ribs, he looked up at Lee with a hard glare.

"I do not have a bloodline, and I do not need one," the taijutsu specialist stated. "With enough experience, anyone can copy the outer appearance of a taijutsu style. As I said though, there's something that you will never be able to copy with your eyes, and that's the strength and speed I've acquired through long effort and hard work."

Sasuke rose from the ground and brought his hands together to try another Grand Fireball Technique. His opponent stood and watched placidly as the Uchiha prodigy moved through the seals again, his fingers shifting from shape to shape more slowly than before due to the pain in his ribs. With the last seal completed, Sasuke brought his right hand up to his lips once more.

Lee burst into motion at that point, speeding along an oblique path to close the distance so quickly that it seemed to Sasuke as if the other Leaf Genin had moved straight through the forming fireball. As abruptly as it had appeared though, the green spandex-clad figure suddenly disappeared from his field of vision. By the time Sasuke realized that Lee had ducked beneath him, the taijutsu specialist was already in position to deliver a thrust kick straight up into his chin.

The force of the impact propelled Sasuke's body nearly straight up into the air. Lee followed a moment later, launching his body up with a powerful jump and assaulting the Uchiha prodigy with a series of spinning kicks in midair. With Sasuke still shaken from the teeth-rattling kick to the chin and unable to defend properly, Lee's attacks easily maneuvered around his feeble attempts at a guard or outright smashed straight through.

By the time the two reached the apex of their arc and began descending to the floor, Sasuke had been knocked unconscious by the taijutsu specialist's powerful blows. Still in an upright posture, Sasuke's body landed feet first before crumpling to the floor in a boneless heap. Lee dropped down beside him in a kneeling posture with his hands touching the ground on either side.

"Winner, Rock Lee!" Hayate declared loudly. With the outcome of the match being so obvious, the announcement served mostly as a signal for the medical crews to move in.

* * *

Rushing in alongside a pair of medics bearing a stretcher between them, Sakura knelt down and put two fingers against the side of Sasuke's neck. She was relieved to find that his pulse was strong and regular. It was a sign that there was no internal bleeding or other serious injury requiring on-the-spot treatment. A quick examination confirmed that his injuries were mostly bruises, with concussion and bone fractures being possibilities as well.

The pink-haired medic-nin stood back up and motioned for her stretcher crew to load him up; his injuries weren't immediately life-threatening and could be dealt with more effectively at the hospital. As they laid the stretcher down beside the unconscious Uchiha to ease him onto it, she mused on how much she had changed over the last half year.

She admitted to herself that, upon graduating from the academy, she had been most clearly defined by her lack of actual ability and her Sasuke fangirlism. The Sakura of six months ago would have squealed in delight at the opportunity that the current situation presented her with, running her hands across Sasuke's body under the guise of a medical examination. That Sakura would have been helpless to do anything or aid anyone however.

Six months later, well on the path to becoming a fully qualified medic-nin, her outlook had changed greatly. Though there were still odd twinges of emotion when she looked at the black-haired boy on the ground before her, most of what she felt came from her concern as a medic over an injured patient.

"We're ready, Haruno-san," one of the stretcher medics said.

She nodded and placed a hand lightly on Sasuke's brow, sending a small wave of healing chakra inside his head. If he had suffered a concussion, it would stabilize him for travel and help prevent further injuries to the brain. She then led her stretcher crew out of the main hall and towards the room where the hospital staff had set up a temporary triage area. Given her patient's unconscious state and possible brain injuries, Sakura figured that the senior medic-nin supervising the preliminaries would immediately pass him to the hospital for further evaluation and treatment. She only hoped that she would be able to return to the tower in time to watch her former teammates' matches.

* * *

With Sasuke taken away and Lee celebrating his victory with a cheering Tenten and an indifferent Neji, Hayate stepped forward to announce the next two fighters.

"The fourth match is Sabaku no Gaara versus Zaku Abumi!"

Following Lee's example from the previous match, the brash Oto-nin leapt from the observation balcony down to the match area. Gaara followed a moment later from the opposite balcony, his body melting away into a drift of sand and reforming opposite Zaku in a Suna Shunshin. His posture was the same as before he left the balcony; right side of the body partially turned away, arms loosely folded across the chest, and head tilted slightly downwards. The way the redheaded Suna-nin held his body suggested nothing as much as complete apathy.

The two combatants stared at each other in silence for a few moments. Zaku was crouched in readiness, fingers twitching in anticipation. Gaara on the other hand was still as a statue, not even bothering to adopt a fighting posture. With his left eye exposed however, Naruto noticed something moving on the floor around the redhead.

"You guys see that?" he asked his teammates in a low voice.

Haku turned to look at her blond teammate in confusion. "See what?"

"You're referring to the sand," Shino stated. Having trained from youth to work alongside bugs, the tall bushy-haired Aburame's eyes were perceptive enough to catch the thin wisps of sand spreading out from Gaara's position. Several nearly invisible tendrils slithered towards Zaku at oblique angles, moving to stealthily encircle the Oto-nin.

The ice maiden nodded as she finally noticed what her teammates had seen. "I've never heard of Suna-nin being able to manipulate sand directly like that. Zabuza-san said they have some techniques that can do it indirectly like sand clones, but they primarily use wind jutsu or puppets."

"Zabuza knew a lot about Sunagakure?" Naruto asked.

"He made it a point to study their abilities," she replied. "We occasionally took jobs in Wind Country when there weren't any decent ones available elsewhere. For water jutsu users everything's more difficult in that environment."

Naruto turned back to look at the two combatants. The sand had stopped moving, and was now spread over the floor near the two in a thin layer that could have easily been mistaken for normal dirt and grime.

"You're not worth my time," Gaara finally said. Since the start of the match the redhead had never blinked, and his eyes never wavered from the object of their focus.

"What did you say you runt?" Zaku snarled. "I'll rip your skinny ass apart!"

The Suna-nin continued as if his opponent hadn't said anything at all. "I had hoped to fight the Uchiha or the Hyuuga from Konoha, in order to validate my existence through their strength. You, you're nothing. Destroying you proves nothing."

The thing that struck Naruto most was the way the redhead spoke. Though the words conveyed disappointment, there was no sense of that in his tone. In fact, there seemed to be nothing at all in that flat unexpressive voice. No disdain for his opponent or confidence in his own abilities, not even a hint of threatening menace when he delivered the last line.

"I'll show you who's nothing!" Zaku yelled. "Zankuuha!"

The black-haired Oto-nin brought his right arm up and released a blast of concentrated air from the implanted air tube in his palm. Gaara didn't move, but a floating curtain of sand materialized just in front of him. Zaku's attack impacted against and dispersed the sand curtain with a swooshing sound. Sapped of most of its potency though, when the air blast finally reached Gaara it only had enough strength to ruffle one of the redhead's spiky locks of hair.

Zaku stared at his opponent with wide eyes. The redheaded Suna-nin had managed to neutralize his primary attack without as much as moving a muscle.

"What is that?" he demanded. "You can control sand or something?"

Gaara answered him with a silent impassivity, waiting for him to make another move.

Zaku brought his two arms up and aimed the air tubes in both palms at Gaara. His first attack had managed to reach its target, though with most of its strength drained away. A more powerful attack might succeed where the first had failed.

"Take this! Zankuukyokuha!"

With both tubes engaged, the resulting combined attack was much more powerful than the first had been. The massive air blast hurtled towards Gaara, cutting shallow grooves on the floor en route. Once again a sand barrier materialized before the Suna-nin. This time however it formed into a thicker wall of sand that stretched from the floor to a foot above Gaara's height and extended several inches past his body on both sides.

The center of the attack smashed into the sand wall with a deafening crashing sound, violently dispersing its component grains apart. As before though, the barrier had blocked so much of its strength that the end result was Gaara's hair being blown about. The parts of the sound blast that had not met the sand barrier continued past the redhead and struck the hall's far wall behind him, leaving a series of gouges on its thick plaster surface.

Zaku's mouth hung open as he stared in disbelief again. With his most powerful attack having no effect on the redheaded Suna-nin, he was left without any clear idea of what else to do.

"Are you finished?" Gaara asked.

The Oto-nin growled in frustration and brought his arms up once more. Before he could try another air blast attack however Gaara went on the offensive. The thin tendrils of sand that he had surreptitiously spread to either side merged together into a pair of thick sand tentacles. They each coiled around one of Zaku's legs, jerking the surprised Oto-nin off his feet to land hard on the ground.

Zaku had just enough time to regain his footing before a thick wave of sand rolled over him. The sand shifted to surround his entire body in one vertical mound, leaving only his face and right palm exposed. A thin layer of sand slithered over the back of his hand, fixing it in place a few inches away from his own chest with the palm pointed inward.

As he felt the sand begin to compact around his body, he did the only thing he could think of. "Zankuuha!"

The air blast smashed into the sand encasing his torso, knocking a few grains loose.

"Zankuuha! Zankuuha! Damn it, Zankuuha!" Zaku tried again and again to free himself, his tone growing more and more panicked with each repetition.

A sheet of sand fell over his face, choking his voice off into an incoherent grunt. The only sign that the mound of sand contained a human being inside was the hand still protruding from the middle, with fingers twitching in desperation. Blast after blast of concentrated air thumped against the hard-packed sand to no effect.

"Die," Gaara said.

The pile of sand shifted, gradually collapsing in on itself, twisting and crushing the black-haired Oto-nin's body one part at a time. With the layer of sand covering his face, the only sounds he could produce were muffled shrieks of pain that grew higher pitched and more intense. His fingers formed into twisted claws that scrabbled uselessly at empty air. Then the exposed limb jerked and twisted, moving so that it pointed upwards with the hand angled in a way that should not have been possible had it still been unbroken and attached to the body. Finally the sand near the top of the pile constricted sharply to abruptly cut off Zaku's scream.

A hushed silence fell over the hall, with many of the Genin holding their breaths after what they'd just witnessed. After a few seconds, the silence was broken as the sand began sliding away from the pile in sheets, returning to Gaara in a series of winding rivulets. The only thing that was left of the Oto-nin was maroon-stained clothing covering a pile of twisted flesh and broken bones.

"The fourth match's winner is Sabaku no Gaara!" Hayate called out, keeping a wary eye on Gaara while he waved the medical and cleanup crews over. He did not hold any hope for the Zaku's survival; if it weren't for the tuft of bloodied black hair in the middle of the pile he wouldn't have been able to identify any part of the Oto Genin's body from the mess. Still, it was best to get things cleaned up so the matches could continue.

As soon as he had been declared the victor the redheaded Suna-nin's figure melted away into a drift of sand, reforming an instant later on the observation balcony. Throughout the entire fight, from the initial Suna Shunshin to the floor to his returning back to the balcony, Gaara's posture had not changed from the way he initially stood before the match.

* * *

After twenty minutes of furious work by the tower's janitorial staff, the floor was clean enough for Hayate to declare the next fight's combatants.

"Fifth match, Hyuuga Hinata versus Yamanaka Ino!"

The two rookie Leaf Kunoichi approached the match area timidly, shaken by what they had just witnessed. Hinata in particular took a large detour around the wet spot on the floor where the cleaning crew had hurriedly removed Zaku's mangled remains and mopped up the blood. Once both had reached their respective starting points Hinata and Ino faced each other silently. Though each knew the other would not be as inhumanly brutal as Gaara had been, they were nevertheless distracted as their minds kept replaying parts of the previous match.

"Fight!" Hayate barked out. It wasn't strictly necessary for him to do so, the match technically started as soon as both combatants stood ready. It seemed as if the two girls needed some verbal encouragement however.

His order was initially greeted by blank stares. Hinata was the first to regain her focus, pushing herself into movement a few seconds later. The sight of the normally gentle Hyuuga heiress rushing at her was enough to break Ino out of her mental fugue, and she thrust her hands forward with thumbs and first two fingers touching in preparation for her family's core jutsu.

"Shintenshin no-"

Hinata reached within striking range of her opponent and sent a spear hand darting through the opening between Ino's fingers, forcing her hands apart and interrupting the jutsu. The blonde found herself retreating and on the defensive as she dodged and parried a seemingly endless stream of palm strikes and finger jabs.

"Hinata's not entirely herself," Haku said as she and her team watched the exchange from the observation balcony.

"Not herself?" Naruto asked.

The ice maiden nodded. "I've gotten to know her a bit since we first met a couple months ago. She's been pretty friendly to me. I don't think she has a lot of people close to her besides Kiba. We've sparred a few times, and she's not fighting like she normally does. Her posture's not as relaxed as normal, and her attacks are more hesitant."

"She may have been shaken mentally by the previous match," Shino observed. "By how they acted at the beginning of their match, it seems they both were."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "There's something wrong with that guy's head. I know this is supposed to be a life and death thing, but crushing someone who wasn't able to defend himself was just uncalled for."

"I concur with your assessment," Shino said. "My Kikaichu are wary of him. They detect the scent of old blood and something else that they can't identify. During the written exam I spread a number of them around the room in order to find someone with the correct answers to the test questions. They were unwilling to approach the part of the room he was in without direct orders."

Haku kept her silence. She had heard stories from Zabuza about Hidden Mist's bloody past, when academy students were required to kill their closest friends before they could graduate. She had seen firsthand the cruelty some shinobi who bore the Kiri insignia were capable of. Once more she found herself agreeing with her first mentor's assessment that Konoha was too soft compared to the other villages. She felt a mixture of shame and relief at that however. Shame that she thought badly of her adopted home in that way, and relief that it was their softness which had allowed her to find a place in the village in the first place.

On the floor beneath them Hinata's ceaseless barrage of attacks had gradually pushed Ino into a corner of the large room. None of her blows had connected solidly, but she managed to land the occasional brushing palm strike or glancing finger jab. The ponytailed blonde's movements, at first vigorous and energetic, became progressively stiffer and slower with each of the Hyuuga heiress' near-misses. Finally Ino dropped to her knees, panting for breath as she waved one arm limply over her head.

"I can't go on, I forfeit!" she called out.

Hayate looked back and forth between the two kunoichi for a moment, then cleared his throat and made the match result official. "Fifth match winner, Hyuuga Hinata!"

"Hmm," Naruto murmured to himself, one hand rising to scratch idly at the back of his head.

He didn't recall seeing Hinata land any definitive fight-ending attacks. But then again, his attention hadn't been fully engaged on that fight. Ino's taijutsu, to put it bluntly, was terrible, about on par with how Sakura had been during Team Eight's first days. With Hinata not fighting at her best and her opponent being so poorly skilled, it simply wasn't an interesting match to watch. Naruto had spent a good portion of the time looking around the room examining the other Genin instead.

As soon as the match was officially declared Hinata bent down and helped Ino back to her feet. The Hyuuga heiress supported the blonde as she walked with shaky steps to the waiting medical crew and stretcher, and then followed them out of the hall with a concerned look on her face.

* * *

Once more the sickly exam proctor turned to face the electronic board, gesturing with his hand for the operators to display the next set of names.

"The sixth match is Tenten versus Fuyuno Haku!"

Naruto turned to her and nodded. "Good luck."

Haku thanked her blond teammate's words of encouragement with a smile as she made her way down the stairs to meet her opponent. She was not personally acquainted with Tenten, but knew a bit about the other girl by way of reputation. Though she came from a civilian background, Tenten was considered the most talented throwing expert of the current Genin generation, and was said to be able to turn nearly anything into an effective projectile weapon.

As a ranged specialist herself, Haku knew she was at a bit of a disadvantage for this fight. Senbon were amongst the lightest thrown weapons and would be easily brushed aside by Tenten's heavier kunai and shuriken. She could fall back on her bloodline ice jutsu, but without a ready source of water to draw from it would take a great deal of chakra to condense ice out of the room's ambient moisture. She doubted she had enough chakra to fully form all the ice mirrors of her Kekkei Genkai's signature jutsu.

Haku took a few seconds to look over her opponent as they faced off against each other. Tenten was just a shade shorter than herself, with hair bundled up in twin buns on either side of the head. She was attired in a tight sleeveless pink blouse and plain dark green pants. She had a shuriken holster strapped to her right thigh and a pouch hanging behind her on the right side of her hip, indicating that she was right-handed. That was useful information, but Haku doubted that she would be able to defeat her opponent simply by disabling her right arm. Most projectile specialists developed the ability to throw ambidextrously in order to launch more weapons at once.

"I've heard about you," Tenten said, "you're that new girl from outside the village. You throw senbon right?"

"Yes," Haku replied tentatively, wondering where the other girl had gotten her information.

She did not consider her background, the one the Hokage created for her at least, to be a secret. On the other hand she did make a habit of keeping her combat abilities hidden, training in throwing and ice jutsu only where there was no one around besides her teammates, her sensei, and her sensei's crazy friend. She suppressed a shudder as a recollection of the way Anko acted before the Forest of Death test flashed through her mind. No matter what Naruto said, he would never convince her that the older trench coated woman wasn't mentally unbalanced.

"You buy your senbon from my father's store," the bun-haired girl explained, having picked up on Haku's unspoken question.

"Oh!" Haku exclaimed as she brought her hands together. "Your father is Kanesada-san? His weapons are of very fine quality. I'm honored to be facing his daughter."

Senbon were so light that any impurities in the metal or flaws in crafting would change their balance significantly, resulting in problems with range and accuracy. Acquiring well-made senbon had been a recurring problem for Haku when she was with Zabuza. As soon as she received her first mission pay envelope as a Leaf nin, she had made it a point to visit every weapon store in Konoha to compare their senbon. The store run by Tenten's father had been a welcome surprise when she came across it. Though he charged a bit more than his competitors, his senbon were by far the best in Konona, and the equal of any that she had come across during all her travels.

"Dad'll be happy to hear that," Tenten replied, pausing for a moment in thought before continuing, "How about this? If you win, I'll get him to give you a discount on your next couple purchases. If I win though, you have to work at the shop for a month. We're usually shorthanded right after academy graduation, when all the new Genin are shopping for weapons."

Haku nodded her agreement. "Deal."

With their conversation concluded, Haku and Tenten each watched the other in silence for a few seconds. Then, as if acting on some unknown cue, the two simultaneously jumped away from each other. Their arms came forward at the same time, Tenten releasing a kunai and Haku answering with a pair of senbon.

As she expected the heavier kunai easily pushed the two needle weapons aside, its flight path barely affected by the impact. The ice maiden deflected the kunai away from her body with a senbon held in a reverse grip in her left hand. Her opponent took advantage of the change in tempo to press the attack, launching volley after volley of kunai and shuriken that forced her to stay on the defensive.

"Not bad, but how about this?" With that Tenten leapt high into the air. Her right hand dug into her hip pouch and returned with a scroll, pulling it open as she brought it before her. The bun-haired girl then began spinning in midair, holding one end of the scroll above her head so that it spiraled around her like a long streamer.

Haku threw a few senbon at her opponent experimentally, but they bounced off the rapidly spinning scroll paper that acted as a thin shield around the bun-haired girl. In response Tenten began unsealing weapons from the scroll and throwing them one after the other. At first it was kunai and shuriken, and Haku blocked them with the same ease as she had the previous attacks. Her eyes widened however when her opponent began slinging kama, nunchaku, and even full-length iron-shod staves at her. She was forced to dodge and weave her way around the attacks; her senbon were simply too light and thin to stand up to the heavier weaponry.

After what seemed like an eternity to the ice maiden of being chased her all over the hall, Tenten finally exhausted her storage scroll's weaponry and dropped back to the floor. Haku took the opportunity to throw a pair of senbon at her opponent, but the bun-haired girl was able to roll out of the way in time.

"You're pretty fast," Tenten remarked, settling into a defensive crouch with several shuriken in each hand.

Haku nodded in acknowledgement of the compliment and offered one of her own. "What you just did was pretty impressive, staying in the air like that while unloading an entire scroll's worth of weapons."

The bun-haired girl slung her hands forward, launching the shuriken she held in a spread pattern. She then moved both hands behind her back to dig into her hip pouch. By the time Haku deflected the projectiles away, Tenten's hands reemerged with a scroll clasped in the fingers of each.

"This is going to be even more impressive," she asserted, thrusting the scrolls forward with her arms crossed at the wrists. "I was going to save this for the finals, but it looks like I won't be able to. You're too good for me to beat with regular throwing attacks, so I'm going to have to use my strongest attack."

She dropped to a kneeling position and slammed the scrolls down vertically on either side of her, a pair of loud clacks echoing thinly through the room as the scrolls' central wooden pegs met the hard stone tiles of the floor. Her hands then came together before her in a long series of seals. As her opponent set up the attack, Haku gathered chakra in preparation for her response. She didn't know exactly how the jutsu would unfold, but given Tenten's specialization and the way the other girl's previous scroll-based attack had played out, it was undoubtedly a mass ranged attack of some sort.

Tenten's hands finished in the snake seal, with fingers laced together and folded down over her clasped hands. "Soushouryuu!"

The scrolls to either side of her unfurled themselves to start the Twin Rising Dragons Technique, their long paper ends circling each other as they shot up into the air to create a paired spiraling pattern. The bun-haired girl followed them up, leaping up into the vertical tunnel created by the whirling scrolls. She then began spinning in midair in the opposite direction. This time however, she unsealed and hurled weapons with both hands as they passed the scrolls, creating a hail of steel that was twice as intense as her previous single-scroll attack.

Having anticipated something like it, Haku threw both her hands forward with palms open as the first wave of projectiles approached. She concentrated on pulling chakra into the area just in front of them to form a solid barrier of ice.

"Koori no Tate!"

The space before her hands shimmered, a thin layer of chakra-infused ice emerging out of thin air a moment later. With the amount of chakra it took her to create just one Shield of Ice, Haku estimated that she would only be able to form a few more before she began running into chakra depletion issues. She needed to end this fight sooner rather than later.

Tenten's initial kunai and shuriken bounced off the shield without doing any damage. As the larger and heavier weapons struck however, the force of their impacts gouged out thin chips from the ice and left a spider web pattern of tiny cracks. The ice maiden was confident in her shield's ability to withstand the attacks though. Despite their apparently thinness and fragility, she knew from experience that it would take nothing short of a full-strength swipe of Zabuza's giant sword to shatter her ice panes.

Momentarily safe behind her shield, Haku decided to go on the offensive before her opponent moved to attack from an angle that was not protected by the ice pane. "Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

She threw as much chakra into the technique as she could, instantly filling the match area with a blinding mist so thick that she could barely see the fingers of her own outstretched hands. Safely concealed from her opponent's eyes, she then silently formed an ice mirror on the opposite side of the hall, just behind where Tenten had been before initiating the Twin Rising Dragons. After applying a bit more chakra to her ice shield to reshape it into a mirror, she was ready. She disappeared into the mirror before her, moving across the room near instantaneously to noiselessly emerge from the second mirror on the opposite side of the room.

Tenten was caught off guard when the match area suddenly hazed over with a mist so thick that she was unable to see her opponent or even the exam proctor. With her scrolls exhausted of weaponry though, she had no choice but to return to the ground. She dropped through the mist and landed as gently as she could, the sandals on her feet touching the floor with light taps. Her right hand reached into the holster strapped to her leg, emerging a moment with a pair of kunai. With a quick tossing motion she flipped one of them into her left hand, making a soft padding sound as the steel handle landed against her palm. She then settled into a fighting stance with kunai held in reverse grips in both hands, on guard for an attack from any direction as her ears strained to detect any sign of Haku.

Guided by the sounds Tenten made as she dropped back to the ground, the ice maiden crept her way towards her opponent. The Kirigakure no Jutsu was one of the primary tools in Zabuza's arsenal, and he had trained her until she was nearly as comfortable fighting inside the vision-impairing mist as he was. Each small scrape of sandal sole against stone tile, every light rustle of fabric as Tenten shifted her posture one way or another, brought a wealth of information to her well-trained ears. Her own soundless steps steadily brought her closer to her opponent until she was right behind the other girl, just within arm's reach of her neck.

Tenten suddenly jerked into motion as she instinctively sensed the danger from behind, her right arm swinging in a wild backfist. Haku had expected just such a response, knowing which side of the body the bun-haired girl favored and having experience with how blinded opponents tended to react. She stepped diagonally to her left, neatly moving past the backfist and closing the distance to where only inches separated her body from her opponent's. She passed her right hand under Tenten's right arm, looping it back up and putting her palm against the back of the other girl's neck to apply pressure and control the arm. Simultaneously her left hand swung forward and around to place a senbon against Tenten's throat.

The bun-haired girl's body momentarily stiffened at the threat. With the sharp tip of the needle weapon digging into the skin and putting light pressure on her trachea however, there was no way to get out of the situation without risking serious injury. Reluctantly, she allowed her body to relax in resigned defeat.

Once she was sure that her opponent had given up, Haku relaxed her left hand and relieved the pressure she had been applying on Tenten's throat. She kept the senbon against the skin however. She didn't think Tenten was the type to resort to trickery with a fake surrender, but until the match was officially declared they were still technically enemy combatants. Making sure the bun-haired girl was still unresisting; the ice maiden ended the flow of her chakra to the Hidden Mist Technique so that the exam proctor could see the results.

As the chakra-laced mist dispersed, Hayate took only a brief moment to glance at the way the two girls stood before announcing the result. "The sixth match winner, Fuyuno Haku!"

With the match over, Haku released her hold on Tenten and took a step back to give the other girl some space.

"You had some great jutsu and put up a really good fight. I'm sorry I had to beat you this time, but I'm sure you'll pass in the next Chunin exam," the ice maiden offered.

Tenten extended a hand with a grin, her outwardly smiling expression not entirely successful at hiding the disappointment she felt over being defeated. "You were the better kunoichi today. If I had to be defeated by anyone, I'm glad it was you. I'll be rooting for you during the finals, go show everyone what a throwing specialist can do!"

Haku grasped the proffered hand and exchanged a handshake with the bun-haired girl. "I'll do my best not to let you down."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Hard drive issues resolved for good, so updates will continue apace. Hopefully.

As before, I heavily compressed the introductory section of the prelims so that I could spend more words on the parts that differed from canon. Even so dealing with all nine matches took well over 10K words, so I ended up splitting the prelims into two chapters.

If Haku doesn't seem as strong as she should be, it's because A) Tenten got the worst possible matchup for her skillset in canon, and B) canon Haku was a one-jutsu bloodline junkie who fought in the most ideal environment possible.

6/11/10: First Upload


	13. Would be 'Good for Nothing'

Frozen Heart, Crimson Steel

Chapter Thirteen: …Would be 'Good for Nothing'

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Following the conclusion of their match, Haku and Tenten shook hands before leaving the floor. Once both kunoichi had returned to the observation balconies to congratulations or condolences from their respective teammates, Hayate raised an arm as a signal for the electronic signboard to display the next two fighters.

"Seventh match, Nara Shikamaru versus Aburame Shino!"

"Be careful," Haku called out after her teammate.

"And kick his ass too," Naruto added.

Shino paused mid-step to nod in acknowledgement before continuing down the stairs, hands resting relaxedly in the pockets of his large coat.

"Tch, this is troublesome," Shikamaru muttered as he made his own way to the floor in a lazy ambling gait. His hands were shoved into pockets as well, in his gray pants.

"Do you wish to forfeit the match? It might be easier that way," Shino offered.

"Funny you should say that," Shikamaru replied. "I don't even care, but my mom packed me some insecticide bombs for the Forest of Death test. If she found out I was matched against you and didn't at least try to use them she'd raise holy hell, and that would be even more troublesome."

"Shall we start then?"

"I suppose. I have to warn you though, these are pretty potent bombs. I'm pretty sure the gas is strong enough to kill your bugs with just a little exposure."

Shino nodded as he spread his feet into a more stable fighting stance. No matter how carelessly laid back he acted, the pineapple-headed slacker did not offer information for no reason. The bug user recognized the casually delivered words as a warning that Shikamaru was prepared to kill a good portion of his Kikaichu to win, and also as a roundabout way of advising that he forfeit the match before such an eventuality came to pass. He did not doubt the existence of the bombs, or that they were as potent as suggested; amongst Konoha's shinobi clans the overbearing Nara matron was as famous for her diligence as the men were for their lackadaisical attitude. Those things didn't matter though. He user had his own ideas about how to approach the fight.

"I guess we'd better get to it," Shikamaru muttered, rolling his neck around to work out a kink before moving into a defensive posture. "The sooner this is over with the sooner I can go home for a shower and a nap."

Shino's hands came out of the pockets of his jacket, a kunai in held in each in a reverse grip. Compared to the more conventional grip method with the kunai blade extending from the thumb side, the reverse grip made throwing impractical and reduced the kunai's effective range as a melee weapon. In the hands of a skilled knife fighter however the reverse grip allowed for a faster and more fluid defense, and was also potentially more lethal in close ranges.

"When did you learn how to fight with kunai like that?" the pineapple-headed boy asked.

In response Shino snapped his lower arms forward to launch the kunai at his opponent. It was one of the methods his sensei had taught him for concealing a kunai's throwing motion. This type of throw lacked in accuracy and delivered much less force than a conventional one, but in this case he only needed the kunai for the momentary distraction.

The bug user launched into motion behind his pair of flung kunai, rapidly closing the distance between himself and his opponent with a third kunai held in his right hand in a regular grip.

Shikamaru was caught off guard by the unconventional kunai throw. The lazy Nara only had the time to deflect them with a hastily drawn kunai before Shino approached within taijutsu range. Attacking with a quick succession of stabs from various angles, the bug user was able to prevent his opponent from having enough time to initiate his clan's signature shadow jutsu.

Haku leaned a bit over the observation balcony railing to get a better view. "Can Shino win like that?"

"No," Naruto replied with a quick shake of his head, his eyes firmly fixed on the ongoing fight. "It's probably a distraction while he sets something up."

Although swords and kunai were very different as melee weapons, there was enough overlap in general principles and basic body mechanics that Naruto could gauge the relative skill levels of both combatants. The two were little better than rank amateurs, their skill level with kunai fighting having improved little from the few perfunctory academy classes on the subject. Their attacks were either timid cuts that failed to take full advantage of the additional reach the weapon offered, or overly aggressive thrusts which left them too overextended and off-balance to defend themselves. The counterattacks to exploit those deficiencies never came however; the two Leaf Genin were just as poor at kunai defense as they were on offense and needed time to recover after each block or evasion where a more skilled fighter could have immediately struck back.

Shino, several inches taller than Shikamaru, had the advantage of greater reach. The bug user's position was precarious though. By committing to taijutsu range he was putting himself right on top of his opponent's shadow. One slip of footing, one break in attack tempo, and the lazy Nara would be able to put his hands into the single rat seal that initiated his family's shadow jutsu.

Naruto knew his teammate was smarter than to engage in close combat without some kind of plan, especially since the bug user spent so much of his practice time developing long-ranged attack capabilities to complement the blond's kenjutsu prowess. Thanks to his more sensitive left eye, Naruto was able to spot the irregular streams of Kikaichu trailing down Shino's legs as the bug user jockeyed for position with his opponent. Closing to taijutsu range was a ruse, meant to distract Shikamaru from realizing that Shino had been spreading his bugs the entire time. Naruto couldn't figure out what his teammate had in mind beyond that however.

Shino's attack pattern finally broke. Shikamaru, steadily retreating throughout the match, gradually maneuvered the fight to where Zaku's body had been not long ago. Though the mess had been cleaned up, the floor was still wet and caused Shino's sandaled foot to momentarily slip. The lazy pineapple-headed Leaf Genin deftly dodged to one side and allowed the bug user's overextended body to stagger past. He then put his hands together with the fingers of his right hand curled around the straightened index and middle fingers of his left.

"Kagemane no Jutsu!"

With his shadow already under the target, Shikamaru's Shadow Imitation Technique took effect immediately. Shino's muscles suddenly stiffened, instantly locking his frame into temporary rigidity. Then the muscles fell loose as his body moved limply into an imitation of his pineapple-headed opponent's posture.

"Finally got you," Shikamaru declared. He jumped back several times to create distance, the shadow connecting the two thinning into a long black strand as Shino matched him movement for movement.

"It wasn't hard to see through what you were planning," the lazy Genin continued. "I may not have actually seen you spreading your bugs around, but trying to conceal that was the only rational reason for why you would engage me head on. It doesn't matter though."

Shikamaru paused to lob an insecticide bomb at Shino with his right hand, miming a grabbing motion so that the bug user would catch it as it moved along the downward part of its arcing path. His left hand dug into the pocket of his gray pants, pulling out a cotton breathing mask and a second insecticide bomb.

"My mom packs too much stuff sometimes," Shikamaru muttered as he secured the mask on his face with the thumb and index finger of his left hand, the other three digits wrapped securely around the bomb.

"So this is how it is," he resumed in a louder voice once his preparations were completed. "If you send your bugs after me I'll just drop this bomb right beside me to kill them. If you don't forfeit I'll make you drop the bomb you're holding. You may be able to protect your bugs if you keep them inside you. Like I said before though, this is pretty strong stuff, if you stand in it long enough it'll knock you out."

Shikamaru moved his hands together, emphasizing his verbal threat by miming the act of pulling the activation tab on the bomb.

"One moment please," Shino said in an even and calm voice, as if his body was not completely under his opponent's control. "Please pull the sleeves of my jacket back. There's something you might be interested in seeing first."

The pineapple-headed boy's eyes narrowed as he studied the taller Genin for a moment, then he shrugged and mimed pulling sleeves up his arms. The bug user copied the motion, revealing a pair of explosive tags stuck to the insides of his forearms. They had mostly been hidden by the jacket's long sleeves, with one of the long ends of each tag extending a bit past the inner forearms to touch the base of the bug user's palms.

"Please do not move your arms, if you do I will trigger these tags," Shino stated, his tone as relaxed as if he were discussing the weather. "You have full control over my body moves, but not over how I expel chakra. I assure you, I am fully capable of igniting these tags even under the control of your Kagemane no Jutsu."

"What are you trying to do?" Shikamaru asked, his hands frozen mid-movement in the act of miming reaching for and tearing the tags away.

"I'm fully aware of the limitations of your family's base jutsu," the bug user replied. "You will suffer any damage I do while under the effect of the Kagemane."

"You're bluffing! You'd blow your own hands off if you tried that."

"Perhaps I am bluffing. Perhaps I have more faith in Konoha Hospital's surgeons than you do. Are you willing to take that risk?"

Shikamaru grimaced at Shino's words. Before the match started he had thought of a number of different strategic approaches that the taller bushy-haired Genin could have taken, and had come up with reasonable plans of action against most of them. Self-mutilation was not something he had considered though. He was pretty sure that the bug user was bluffing, but didn't want to act until he had a guaranteed countermeasure. If there was the slightest chance that Shino wasn't bluffing, the consequences were too bothersome to deal with.

The pineapple-headed boy's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sensation of danger from behind. He responded by instinctively pushed a spike of shadow out to catch whatever was behind him. When he turned around to look, he saw that his shadow had latched onto a second Shino standing stiffly three feet behind him, arm extended with a kunai pointed directly at the back of his neck. This new Shino held his posture rigidly for a second before the full effects of the Kagemane no Jutsu took hold, and then he too moved into an imitation of the way the lazy Nara stood.

Shikamaru turned back to the Shino standing before him. "Your plan was to use a bug clone to attack me from behind while I had you in my jutsu?"

"Part of it, yes," the first Shino replied. "I did not know whether you had improved your Shadow Imitation Technique to the point where you could bind multiple targets, so I came up with using the explosive tags as a secondary plan."

"Just so you know, I have tags on my arms too," the Shino behind him added.

"One of us is a clone, but do you know which one?" the original Shino asked. "I do not know whether you suffer the same injuries if the jutsu is holding a clone rather than the original. It might be interesting to find out."

Shikamaru pondered his situation in silence for several moments. He was almost certain that his opponent was bluffing. Shino was nothing if not rational. There was no way the taller boy would consider self-mutilation to be a worthwhile price to pay for winning a preliminary match, especially since the Chunin exams were held at regular intervals and he could simply try again if he failed.

But what if he was wrong? The Aburame scion was the quietest one of the current graduating year; it was hard to get a sense of the bug user's real personality with how few words he said. Maybe Shino really was willing to go that far. What about the question of which one was the original and which the clone? He believed that the Shino in front of him was the real one, but couldn't be certain of it. There was a brief moment during the fight when he had lost track of the taller boy's hands; it was possible that the bug user had used a quick Kawarimi to switch himself with a hidden bug clone during that time. There was normally enough smoke and chakra residue that it was obvious a Substitution Technique had been used, but he didn't know much about bug clones and couldn't be certain the same thing applied to them.

And there was the matter of what would happen next if he won. He really didn't want to go to the finals and have to face that creepy Sand kid who squished people. Even if he avoided that matchup or gave up right away, there would be more work and more responsibility if he was promoted. If he failed, then all of this would be pointless.

After a few more seconds of thought Shikamaru shrugged in resignation. "This is too troublesome. I forfeit."

The lazy Nara pushed his arms above his head, stretching them out after having held them motionless for so long. His shadows retreated away from their captives into a diffuse gray blob beneath his own feet. A muted buzzing sound accompanied the release of the Shino behind him; he didn't need to turn around to know that it was the bug clone dispersing to return to its host.

"So the whole thing about me not knowing which one was the clone was a bluff?" he asked.

In response the body of the Shino before him scattered apart into bugs as well. The real Shino then stepped out from the shadows cast by the statue of the giant hands on the far side of the room. His sleeves were pulled up to reveal that his forearms also had a pair of explosive tags attached.

"Perhaps," he said simply in answer to Shikamaru's question.

"The winner of the seventh match is Aburame Shino!" Hayate declared as the two Konoha Genin returned to their respective teams' places on the observation balconies.

Haku turned and smiled at her taller teammate as he reclaimed his position on the railing to her right. "Congratulations on the victory."

"That was a nice idea with the tags. It's not easy to outsmart Shikamaru like that," Naruto added.

Shino shrugged in reply. "I doubt I actually managed to outmaneuver him. That wasn't my goal though. I knew he would not be particularly motivated, especially since both his teammates had already lost their matches. I simply pushed the stakes of the match beyond what he was willing to risk, and relied on his inherent nature to take care of the rest."

"So you basically bluffed him?"

"In part. I honestly do not know whether triggering an explosive tag on a bug clone bound with Kagemane would have resulted in the same injuries on him, but I was not willing to risk it against a fellow Leaf shinobi. He did not know that for certain however, and it was to my advantage that the members of my clan have a reputation for being socially reserved and lacking in emotion."

The bug user moved a hand to push his sunglasses up before continuing.

"The Nara clan uses Shogi as one of its training methods. In contrast, my family's game of choice is the western card game called Poker. Shikamaru and his father excel in creating strategies for clearly defined tactical situations in which the strengths and limitations of each piece are well-known. In this case I presented him with a situation based on my willingness to harm allied shinobi for my own personal gain. As that was something he could not gauge with certainty, the safer course of action for him was to concede the match."

* * *

On the floor of the hall sickly exam proctor stepped forward once more, coughing several times before announcing the next pair of fighters. "Match number eight, Temari versus Kin Tsuchi!"

The female Oto-nin with long black hair hopped up to balance on the railing of the eastern observation balcony. She then stepped off the barrier, landing lightly on the floor beneath and walking to the center of the hall. From the other side of the room Temari jumped onto the leaves of her giant fan and floated down to the floor to meet her opponent. As she landed she closed the fan and dropped it upside down onto the ground beside her with a resounding clang.

"I need to work out my frustrations over my idiot brother getting himself hurt," Temari said with a smirk, "I hope you're up to the challenge."

"Don't look down on me just because I come from a small village!" the female Oto-nin scowled.

The fan wielder waved a hand in front of her. "That's not it at all. I look down on you because you don't seem to be much of anything. Your teammates were embarrassingly weak in their matches. I don't expect much more from you."

Kin gritted her teeth in anger. She had barely known Dosu and Zaku; the team had been put together as a matter of convenience for the exams. While she felt a certain degree of respect for Dosu, it was strictly because of his leadership abilities. Zaku on the other hand was little more than a loudmouthed annoyance. She didn't care what Temari said about her teammates, but the blonde fan wielder had insulted her as well.

Her hand shot forward, sending a pair of senbon flying towards the female Suna-nin. The second, released a fraction of a second later, was hidden under the first senbon's shadow as they sped towards their target.

Temari casually leaned her giant fan in front of her to block the attack. She did not bother to watch her opponent. Instead, she busied herself with examining the fingernails of her left hand for imperfections.

"I hope you have something more than that," she commented airily.

Kin threw both arms forward, unleashing a barrage of senbon at once. "Take this!"

The outline of the Suna-nin's giant fan momentarily blurred. A moment later Kin's senbon dropped straight out of the air to land on the ground between the two kunoichi. As the thin projectiles landed some of them produced light metallic ringing sounds. Her curiosity piqued, Temari finally turned to her front so she could see what had caused the noise. Her eyes roamed over the scattered needle weapons until she found the source of the noise. A number of the senbon had small bells hanging off one end.

"What did you do? How did you do that?" the female Oto-nin asked in astonishment.

Temari didn't answer, but posed a question of her own instead. "Senbon with bells attached? What kind of stupid idea is that? You're ruining their aerodynamic profile."

Kin snarled in response. "I'll show you what kind of stupid idea it is!"

She turned her palms up and curled her fingers inward sharply. Strands of nearly invisible wire connected to each finger pulled at the bells of her previously thrown senbon, shaking them into resonance in a chorus of discordant tinny rings. Her chakra flowed with the sound to create her primary genjutsu, and a dozen copies of her materialized to either side.

"How do you like that?" the army of identical female Oto-nin asked in unison, their faces twisting into matching sneers. "I can use those bells to directly affect your mind, creating a genjutsu that makes you see multiple copies of me. Now you don't know which one to attack!"

Temari laughed. "Thanks for explaining your jutsu like that, now I know just how to deal with it."

She snapped her giant fan open and swept it forcefully across her body, sending a strong gust of wind slicing across the hall at her opponent. The wind lifted up the scattered senbon and bells in the middle of the room and threw them back in the faces of the group of female Oto-nin. One by one the illusory copies faded away as the wind gust disrupted the bells that anchored the genjutsu in place. The remaining Kin crossed her hands before her face instinctively to block the return barrage of her own weaponry.

Temari ran toward her opponent with her giant fan balanced across one shoulder. She was not very fast, being more of a long distance fighter who preferred to keep her enemies away with ranged attacks. The wind gust from her fan had provided enough of a distraction for her to cover the distance however. After weathering through her own weapons being blown back at her by Temari's wind gust, Kin put her hands down just in time to see the Suna kunoichi's fist flying at her face.

The impact knocked Kin off her feet and put her on her back a short distance away. She turned over and tried to push herself upright, but Temari had closed in once again. The fan wielder grabbed a handful of Kin's extraordinarily long hair and pulled on it, twisting the other girl's head back to meet her foot mid-kick. Once more the female Oto-nin tumbled back to the ground. This time however she was too dazed to react.

"What moron told you knee-length hair was appropriate for a ninja?" Temari asked condescendingly as she put one foot down on Kin's long black hair to hold the Oto kunoichi in place. "And for the record, that bell thing really was a pretty stupid idea."

She leaned forward, using the motion to sling her weapon of choice off her shoulder in a tight vertical arc. The giant fan smashed into Kin's face with a hollow thud, knocking her unconscious even before the back of her head had bounced against the floor.

Hayate waved Temari aside and moved in to check Kin's pulse. After making certain the Oto-nin was unable to continue, he stood back up to declared the result. "The winner of the eighth match is Temari!"

Naruto whistled. "That was pretty one-sided."

Haku nodded. "With the way she was able to knock the senbon out of the air with her fan, she has a strong advantage against throwing specialists. I'm glad I wasn't matched up against her."

* * *

With all but two of the qualifying Genin having already fought, Hayate did not need to wait for the signboard to stop before clearing his throat to announce the final matchup.

"The final match of the Chunin exam preliminaries, Hyuuga Neji versus Uzumaki Naruto!"

As Sasuke had done earlier in the day, Neji calmly strode the length of the observation balcony and down the stairs to reach the match area. Unlike Lee however, Naruto waited for Neji to pass by before turning and following the Hyuuga genius.

Naruto took his time, taking paced leisurely steps that put him further and further behind the older long-haired boy as the two headed towards the center of the large hall where Hayate waited. He used the time to study his opponent carefully. Having graduated in the same academy class as Rock Lee, Neji was a year older than Naruto and his teammates. He was quite a bit taller than Naruto, roughly the same height as Shino, and with what the blond guessed was probably a similar reach. The Hyuuga genius had a relatively slender build though, with a lighter and less muscled frame than either Shino or Rock Lee. Were it not for the formidable reputation of the Hyuuga clan's signature taijutsu style, Naruto wouldn't have thought of Neji as a close combat specialist at all.

Like all clan special abilities, academy lessons only covered the Hyuuga Byakugan and Jyuuken in generalities. The blond only knew that the Byakugan was supposed to be able to see through things, and that Jyuuken was an unarmed fighting style that somehow used the principle of softness. He recalled how, several matches ago, Hinata had defeated her taller and larger opponent with what appeared to be an effortless grace. Her attack were light and relaxed, each one landing with seemingly no more force than a light tap or a gentle brush. Despite Hinata's strikes leaving no visible injuries though, they somehow affected Ino and made her movements successively slower and weaker, and in the end they forced the Yamanaka blonde to forfeit the match.

"You're hesitating. Is it because you've finally realized the futility of fighting someone superior to you?" Neji asked, a hint of a mocking lilt creeping into the edge of his dispassionate tone of voice.

Naruto gazed at his opponent in silence for a few seconds, deliberately delaying his response to irritate the Hyuuga genius, and to reinforce whatever idea Neji has about why he was taking his time.

"What gives you the idea that I think you're superior to me?" the blond finally replied as he took the last step to reach his designated starting point.

The corners of the Hyuuga genius's lips curled into a tight smile. "Do you really consider yourself my equal in combat?"

"We're about to find out aren't we?"

"You seriously believe that you have a chance at defeating me. That's good," Neji replied, his tone of voice and entire demeanor seeming to come alive. "I was not looking forward to wasting my time fighting a tedious match, but I see this will turn out to be interesting after all. Come, raise your sword and show me how you'll struggle in vain against your destiny."

"Destiny? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Each of us has a fate that cannot be denied. Mine was decided the moment I was born, yours was revealed when you lost an eye. It seems that Hokage-sama took pity and waived the rules so that you were allowed to graduate as a Genin, but the path in life that has been written for you cannot be changed."

Neji brought both hands up, hands open and palms facing inward.

"It was not your destiny to be a shinobi," the Hyuuga genius continued. "With these hands, I will make you understand the futility of fighting against your preordained destiny. I will make you understand the pain of fighting against someone fate decreed to be your superior."

His right hand drew back to his hip. His left extended forward, palm turning to face Naruto as the arm straightened.

"In the end when you give up, broken and defeated, I will enjoy the look of bitter disappointment on your face when you finally realize that it was your destiny to fail all along," Neji finished as he closed his hands into fists in a violent jerking motion.

The blond's lips pulled apart, baring his teeth with a feral snarl. He was angry at the arrogant long-haired Hyuuga genius. Angry that Neji considered himself superior before the fight even started, angry that the older boy thought he only graduated from the academy as some kind of charity case of the Hokage's. Most of all, Naruto was angry that Neji had so casually dismissed all of his hard work over the last two years as pointless.

"Your words are empty and meaningless," the blond retorted angrily as he brought his sword up. "There's no such thing as fate, just what can achieved through ability and strength of determination. After I beat you, I'm going to shove them back down your throat!"

"Come then, show me the strength of your determination and I will show you how little it means when faced with a barrier that cannot be overcome," Neji taunted, the sudden bulging of the veins around his eyes signaling the activation of his Byakugan.

Naruto turned his body completely sideways, with his right shoulder pointing towards Neji and most of his weight settled on his flexed left leg. His hands came up to his left shoulder, holding the wooden sword parallel to the ground with the tip aimed directly at the long-haired Hyuuga. Then, with a loud roar, he dashed at his opponent.

The fight with Sasuke had taught the blond the folly of allowing himself to be goaded into rash action. He was genuinely angry at Neji's words, but over the last few months had worked on controlling his own emotional reactions. The rage that he deliberately allowed to manifest in his verbal and physical responses was meant to make the Hyuuga genius believe that he was still a hot-headed kid who would attack without forethought.

The blond's attempt at deception worked as he abruptly broke his stride and paused just before he was within striking range of his opponent. Having expected the reckless frontal charge, Neji was caught off guard by the momentary change in tempo. The fingers of the Hyuuga genius's open left hand twitched and his eyes flickered as he restrained himself from reacting to the anticipated thrusting attack that did not come.

Naruto took advantage of his opponent's momentary lapse in focus. His left leg straightened and his hands moved forward as he pushed himself into a thrust at Neji's upper sternum. The Hyuuga genius reacted from instinct developed through years of hard training, moving away from danger as he twisted his body. The attack struck his chest before sliding off to one side, much of its power lost due to the oblique angle of impact.

Naruto shuffled forward to maintain distance, pressuring Neji with a pair of quick thrusts. The first grazed lightly against Neji's shoulder. The second was evaded entirely when the Hyuuga genius's hand brushed lightly against the back of his right wrist, redirecting the angle of the attack just enough to push it off target.

The blond then lunged forward, turning his hands over to deliver a horizontal left to right cut aimed at the chest. Neji responded by leaning back while simultaneously extending one hand to tap the base of the wooden blade from below with two fingers. The light impact pushed the sword's arc upwards, causing it to slice harmlessly through empty air. The long-haired Hyuuga then brought his left palm up to push at Naruto's right elbow, continuing with a right palm strike against the side of the blond's now-exposed ribs.

Naruto jumped away, his quick backwards movement creating enough distance to prevent his opponent from following up with any further attacks. Neji did not follow, instead settling back into a Jyuuken stance with the right hand at the hip and left palm extended forward. The Hyuuga genius seemed content with waiting for the blond to initiate another exchange.

"Are you starting to understand?" Neji asked. "Are you seeing the futility of fighting someone you cannot beat?"

Naruto ignored his words, using the time to shake out his right arm instead. The limb felt a little weak, and there was a tingling sensation running through the last two fingers of his hand. Perhaps Neji had struck a nerve by chance during the attack?

The blond considered his options as he brought his right hand back to the hilt of his sword. He couldn't use the same approach as before; Neji was unlikely to fall for a fake angry charge a second time. He decided on using careful probing attacks instead, staying at the edge of his range and limiting his combos to minimize the counterattack opportunities he presented the Hyuuga genius with.

A few exchanges with the more careful approach confirmed Naruto's initial suspicions about his opponent's skill level with taijutsu. Neji was good. Far better than Sasuke or Kiba, the two who were the best at taijutsu from the current graduating year. Easily better than Iruka or even Mizuki from the academy when the two instructors practice sparred against their students, and probably the best of everyone who had fought in the preliminaries during the day.

Like Naruto himself, Neji had the ability to evade attacks using the smallest and most efficient shifts of posture. He combined that with an ease of movement that made his offensive motions seem casually nonchalant. Used to reading his opponents through subtle body cues like sudden breaths and muscle flexes, the blond found it difficult to accurately gauge Neji's intentions until the Hyuuga genius's strikes were already well on their way to landing on their targets. Each attack was a soft brush of the palm or light tap of the fingers, yet Naruto felt as if his arms were getting more and more sluggish, as if each seemingly inconsequential strike was actually targeted at some nerve or other. They didn't feel like any nerve strikes he had experienced however. Where a nerve strike was usually immediately painful or disabling, he doubted that he would have noticed the change in his movements at all if he were any less skilled in close combat himself.

The careful approach was getting the blond nowhere. If he kept it up his opponent would wear him down by sheer attrition. A frontal attack was out of the question, Neji was simply too skilled. He would have to find a way to attack from an unexpected angle instead.

Naruto reached into a side pocket and pulled out a pair of tagged kunai. Instead of the typical configuration of having explosive notes loosely tied to their rings however, Naruto had drawn the tags on light cloth and then wrapped them tightly around the kunai's handle to conceal their true nature. The trigger and explosive seals faced inwards, with a series of nearly-invisible thin lines leading from the trigger around the edge of the tag to its reverse side. These chakra-conducting lines allowed for the tags to be triggered without having to expose the seal elements.

He had found through experimentation that this sort of tag and kunai configuration wasn't very useful with standard explosive tags. While they could be made to look like regular kunai, with their seals facing inwards much of their explosive force would be wasted on blowing up the kunai handle. This particular pair carried a new tag design however, with the explosive chakra mostly redirected towards producing smoke through additional conversion seals. The small amount of remaining explosive energy was sufficient to blow the thin fabric apart at carefully prepared seams so that the smoke could then be released properly. Their effect was essentially identical to smoke bombs, but the blond preferred his own creations as they were free and produced smoke at a faster rate than the bombs he could buy from ninja equipment merchants.

Naruto flung both kunai with a sweeping arm movement. Neji didn't react, holding his position confidently after having accurately judged that the two projectiles would land well off the mark on either side of him. Naruto waited until the tags triggered, seeing a brief flash of surprise in Neji's eyes before the area around the Hyuuga genius filled up with black smoke. The blond then shoved his sword into his belt and brought both hands together for a Bunshin no Jutsu. He didn't know if the Byakugan could see through the smokescreen, but it was a possibility and there was no point revealing his ability to use one-handed seals for no advantage.

Seven Bunshin popped into existence around Naruto. As Neji still hadn't moved out of the cloud, the blond took it to mean that the Byakugan's enhanced vision could penetrate the smoke. He directed his Bunshin to move in a complicated pattern while circling the cloud, hoping that the interweaving paths would confuse the Hyuuga genius as to which was real and which were clones. When the smoke cleared, Neji found himself surrounded by eight identical instances of Naruto, each with sword raised in a slightly different posture.

"Is this the limit of the strength of your determination?" Neji asked with a condescending tone. "Smoke bombs and Bunshin? This is how you think you're qualified to be a shinobi?"

Once more Naruto ignored the long-haired Hyuuga's words. Having decided that directly in front and directly in back were too obvious, the blond had placed himself behind and to Neji's right instead, with the other seven spots being taken up by Bunshin. He sent a pair of clones at the front and the one directly behind charging at his opponent, figuring that the Hyuuga genius would think that he was using the two front clones as a distraction to open the way for a strike from the rear. The blond didn't commit himself to the attack until he saw Neji begin to move in reaction to the three Bunshin approaching him.

Naruto readied his sword for a horizontal cut aimed at the abdomen as he charged. Before he could start the attack however Neji was somehow all over him, striking down at his forearm to choke off the swing and then continuing with a series of palm strikes and finger jabs. Naruto was able to ward off the first few attacks as he retreated, but then his defenses began to crumble and Neji scored more and more hits. The Hyuuga genius finished with a devastatingly powerful palm strike into his solar plexus.

The blond staggered back a few steps before dropping to his knees as a wave of nausea washed over him. He pushed against the floor with his arms to keep his torso upright, but they felt weak and rubbery, as if they were ready to give out at any time. He could feel blood moving at the back of his throat as he struggled to fill his lungs with air.

"Get up! You're not finished yet!" Neji ordered. "Show me how desperately you're willing to push yourself to achieve your goal. Show me the strength of your determination. And then show me your despair as you realize how utterly meaningless your struggle against fate has been!"

Naruto slowly rose back to his feet, spitting out a mouthful of blood and using the wooden sword like a cane to support his wobbly legs. As Neji was making no move to attack, the blond decided to try and fix the damage from the last exchange before resuming the fight. The pain in his chest vanished and firmness returned to his legs immediately as the blond drew chakra to fuel his healing ability. Strength and feeling returned to his arms more slowly though, coming in successive waves over several seconds, starting from the upper arms and gradually progressing to the fingertips. The way his arms healed seemed strange to the blond. As far as he could remember, whenever he consciously focused on any kind of injury the results had always been nearly immediate.

"Interesting, you've somehow managed to reopen your chakra pathways," Neji remarked. "The rumors were right after all."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto demanded as he flexed his arms and fingers to work out the last bits of weakness he felt.

"There have been rumors of one of the new Genin developing a healing Kekkei Genkai. They must have been talking about you, as none of the Konoha clans have the ability to immediately neutralize the effects of a Jyuuken strike without the application of medical ninjutsu."

Naruto briefly considered how such a rumor could have spread before setting the matter aside as not immediately relevant. Instead he tried to probe his opponent for any information that could help him formulate a new tactical approach.

"Your soft attacks weren't nerve strikes then. You're somehow disrupting my tenketsu to block my chakra flow."

"Correct," Neji confirmed. "That is the strength of the Hyuuga clan's gentle fist style, and that is why I am an insurmountable obstacle for you. You cannot defeat me in single combat, while with a touch I can shut your body down or even destroy your organs through chakra overload. Your ability to reopen your tenketsu counts for nothing. With these eyes, I can see how much chakra it cost you to do that. Even if your reserves are greater than average you will eventually run out. Your defeat is inevitable; it's simply a matter of time."

The Hyuuga genius paused a moment before continuing. "Perhaps this is your tragedy then. Perhaps, once you've been bred into one of the clans, the combination of your healing Kekkei Genkai and their offensive abilities will result in a line of formidable shinobi. But that role is not for you. As you are, especially with your handicap, all that you can hope to accomplish on the battlefield is being cannon fodder that's more durable than normal. You have my sympathies."

"I don't need your pity," Naruto growled.

"It does not matter how you feel, or how I feel," Neji replied calmly. "We've traded blows and the differences in skill and ability have been clear. Nothing can change the eventual outcome of this match."

The verbal exchange had given Naruto some ideas about how to proceed. There were ways to defend against nerve strikes, keeping the arms and body positioned in such a way as to limit the exposure of the most vulnerable exposed nerves. Tenketsu were distributed more or less evenly throughout the body however. If those were the targets of Jyuuken attacks, then the blond could not allow his opponent to touch him at all. Neji's taijutsu style seemed to be a faster and more refined version of what Hinata had used, but still consisted of the same rapid palm strikes and finger thrusts thrown straight or nearly straight. As long as he could neutralize those attacks, he would be able to prolong the match indefinitely.

On the other hand, finding a winning tactic was more difficult. During the last clash Neji had somehow been able to keep track of real from clone and react to his attack without ever having turned to look at him. The blond didn't know if the Byakugan gave its user some sort of enhanced perception beyond the periphery of a normal field of vision, but it seemed that he would not be able to surprise the Hyuuga genius with a flank attack. A straight frontal assault wouldn't work either; his opponent was simply too fast and too good. Perhaps he could harass Neji into exposing some sort of opening?

Naruto brought his sword up and settled into a fighting stance again. This time however, he bent his knees more than normal and turned his front foot slightly inward. The changes would allow him to push off into a retreat more easily. Keeping the tip of the sword pointed at Neji's throat, he brought the hilt up to mid-sternum height with his arms held mostly straight. The posture made strong thrusts impossible and made it more difficult to execute powerful cutting attacks with speed, but that wasn't what he in mind.

"More tricks? You can't beat me with standard kenjutsu so you're trying to win with bizarre stances?" the Hyuuga genius asked, his tone of voice mirroring the contempt he felt at Naruto's tactics.

"If you're so confident about the superiority of your fate, then come and test my tricks," the blond rejoined.

"Don't presume to speak as if you know anything about my fate!" Neji hissed, showing anger for the first time.

The Hyuuga genius's left hand extended forward with palm open as he settled himself into the standard Jyuuken fighting stance. For a few seconds the two studied each other in silence. Then, with a narrowing of the eyes and a nearly silent exhale, Neji advanced.

* * *

With the fight nearing the half-hour mark, the last match of the preliminaries had gone on longer than any of the previous ones.

Naruto's change in tactics had proven effective, to a point. Instead of targeting the torso area, he was now aiming his attacks at his opponent's extended hand and forearm. By constantly retreating to lure Neji in while using wrist movements and quick hip jerks to move the tip of the sword in tight circles, the blond was able to prevent Neji from closing to taijutsu striking distance while landing a good number of attacks of his own. The strikes were light, mostly of little more than annoyance value. The few times his sword impacted against exposed fingers though had brought satisfying grunts of pain from the Hyuuga genius.

Though Naruto was able to prolong the fight, he still could not find a way to land a decisive strike. He had tried to pull the sword back for a strong cut several times, but each instance Neji was able to take advantage of the small window of opportunity to land a Jyuuken attack. The blond was able to heal the effects of the strikes almost immediately, but he judged himself to be in a stalemate situation at best. The Hyuuga genius' strikes were no longer aimed at shutting down tenketsu points on his arms. Instead the attacks were to his center mass, and each successful blow brought a coppery taste to the back of his throat that was indicative of some sort of internal injury.

Neji had clearly moved past disabling attacks to potentially lethal ones. All it would take was one critical failure in his defenses, one significant lapse in his concentration, and he would be faced with potential defeat or worse. The blond didn't know whether Jyuuken had any sort of one strike disabling or killing attack, or whether his healing ability could overcome even those. He did not intend for the match to go on long enough to find out however.

He needed separation. He needed time to think. The blond turned his body away while reaching into his pockets with his left hand, giving Neji an opening to attack his right upper arm in order to buy the distance he needed. The blow was strong, far stronger than necessary for a Jyuuken attack. Naruto felt his entire right arm go numb, though he didn't know whether it was from the force of the impact itself or from the chakra blocking effects of Jyuuken. His now-lifeless fingers rolled open and his sword fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

The sacrifice had served its purpose however. He used the time to pull a trio of kunai from his pockets, trigger their attached explosive tags, and drop them on the floor between himself and his opponent. The two Genin leapt away from each other moments before the tags exploded, their chakra-powered jumps immediately putting them on opposite ends of the hall. As he landed the blond sent a wave of chakra through his right arm to revive it even as his left hand pulled out a storage scroll that held one of his backup swords.

"Why don't you give up now?" Neji asked, brushing back a stray lock of hair that had fallen loose. "There's no doubt about the outcome, everything you've tried so far has only served to delay the inevitable. Accept your fate with grace."

Naruto responded by bringing his right hand up with one finger extended. "This is what I think about your fate."

It wasn't a witty comeback by any means. He was preoccupied with considering and rejecting one idea after another for attacking Neji, and had simply gone with the first response that came to mind.

The Hyuuga genius' lips curled back, showing his disdain of the blond's reply. "Very well. You should have taken the opportunity to quit shinobi life for a quiet existence as a civilian. Now, I will see to it that you will do so as a cripple."

The blond didn't respond; he finally had a plan that might be workable. At first he had nearly rejected it as he did so many other previous ideas. This one was bizarre enough, complicated enough, and possibly stupid enough, that it had a chance of succeeding.

After unsealing a spare wooden sword and shoving it through his belt, Naruto's hands dug into his pockets and returned with a smoke tagged kunai gripped between the curled third and fourth fingers of each hand. He then crossed his arms together before him with the index and middle fingers of both hands extended straight in a pair of one-handed ram seals. He timed the next few steps of his plan carefully; he needed everything to come together at just the right time.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu!" the blond called out loud, taking extra care in enunciating the jutsu name clearly.

He swept both arms outward just as the thinnest film of mist began to form. Thrown from a much less than ideal grip, the pair of kunai traveled in a wobbly arc before landing between the two Genin. Naruto had timed them so that they triggered just as they made contact with the ground. As the two tags detonated to create a thick curtain of black smoke, Naruto set the rest of his plan into motion.

* * *

Neji jumped backwards a few steps when the kunai flew. Even though they looked like they would fall well short, he had already been surprised by Naruto's tagged kunai once. He had been able to use that situation to his advantage, allowing the blond to think that he was successfully hiding amongst his Bunshin when the Byakugan was not only able to distinguish clone from original, but could also use its 360 degree vision to track all of them at once. One success was not a reason to get complacent however.

His eyes automatically adjusted, the smokescreen fading to invisibility as the Byakugan penetrated it. He saw that Naruto had used it as a distraction to move ten feet to the right. His lips curved up into a tight smirk as he saw what else was happening however.

Naruto was groping around blindly, head turning back and forth sightlessly and left hand feeling around tentatively before him. Neji didn't know where the blond had learned the Hidden Mist Jutsu, but it was obvious that he had used it to blind them both in the belief that he could somehow pull off a surprise attack during the ensuing confusion. This was a critical blunder however. Naruto had only blinded himself, while the Byakugan could see through the chakra-laced mist as easily as the smokescreen from the tags.

Neji had to admit that the fight was both more interesting and more frustrating than he had anticipated. He had been under the impression that none of the new Genin would pose a decent challenge, an idea that was only reinforced when Uchiha Sasuke, this year's top rookie, had failed so miserably against his teammate. Naruto had put up a great deal more resistance than he expected however, and even managed to surprise him a few times.

The Hyuuga genius moved carefully, edging towards his opponent with silent gliding steps so that he would not give his position away. As much grudging respect as he had for the determination Naruto showed, in the end the only thing this match proved was that fate could not be denied. All he had to do was get close enough without the blond detecting his presence. Then a single Jyuuken spear hand into the ribs near the back, a burst of chakra to rupture the spleen, and whatever happened afterwards would no longer be his concern.

Naruto began veering off to the right, apparently having lost his sense of orientation from the mist blinding him. Neji changed his own path just a bit to the right in response, moving to put himself at a perfect angle to strike at the back of the blond's left ribcage.

Three more steps and he would be in range. Neji briefly considered the possibility that his opponent wasn't really blinded at all, that it was some elaborate ruse to trick him. He dismissed that idea however. In the course of groping around Naruto had turned to expose his left side. A ruse would only work if the blond could actually see while feigning blindness, and with a missing left eye it would be impossible for him to track anything happening on that side. Bolstered by that bit of logic, the Hyuuga genius pressed on.

Another step, and another. It was time to end things.

* * *

Naruto watched his opponent's legs carefully. His Kirigakure no Jutsu was a ruse. He used just enough chakra to create the beginnings of a mist, and then released the technique as soon as he threw the kunai. He had gambled on the Byakugan being able to see through both smoke and mist at once, and also on Neji being so accustomed to seeing through things with those special eyes that the Hyuuga genuis wouldn't even notice that the mist was no longer there. Judging from Neji's movements afterwards, it had proven to be a good bet.

The blond had pushed his hitai-ate up just a bit when the smoke tags detonated. It wasn't enough to fully expose his left eye, but by looking down he could see the ground for four or five feet around and could track Neji's approach that way. With his head angled downwards there was no way for the taller Genin to catch a glimpse of the eye either.

He waited, his left arm groping ahead in feigned sightlessness and his body veering slightly more to the right with every pace, until his opponent was within range for a good sword cut. Then he held himself back as Neji took another step; he would only have one opportunity and needed to make it count. Finally, just before the Hyuuga genius reached taijutsu range, Naruto made his move.

The blond stepped towards his opponent while twisting his hips hard to the left, bringing his sword along in a horizontal cut aimed at the midsection. Neji's shock at the unexpected attack was evident on his face. The Hyuuga genius' honed combat reflexes took over however and his arms instantly dropped down to intercept the cut. Naruto's step had brought both of them well within taijutsu range, and Neji was able to block the sword near the hilt to choke off the swing.

Naruto moved right into the next part of his plan. "Sen'eijashu!"

A pair of red and yellow striped snakes burst from his left sleeve. They shot across the small distance separating Naruto from his opponent, wrapping themselves around Neji's wrists to trap his hands. Simultaneously the blond sent his right hand flying forward for a palm strike targeted at the older Genin's sternum.

Taken by surprise and with his hands tied by snakes, the Hyuuga genius did the only thing that came to mind. He forced chakra out of every chakra point at once while throwing his body into a rapid spin.

"Kaiten!"

Naruto's palm grazed Neji's chest just as the long-haired Hyuuga's defensive spin began. The rotational force of the jutsu threw the blond to the side, sending a sharp spike of pain through his right elbow when he landed on it awkwardly. Neji's momentary smirk of triumph as he exited the spin was replaced by confusion when he looked down to see that Naruto had managed to stick an explosive tag on his chest during the palm strike. The Hyuuga genius' right hand flew up to tear the tag away, but it went off before he reached it. The flashbang tag, triggering inches from his face, produced enough light to blind even the Byakugan. Neji dropped to his knees, stunned by the effects of the tag.

Having anticipated the tag detonation and prepared himself beforehand, Naruto was able to take advantage of his opponent's incapacitated state. He sprang back to his feet and rushed forward with sword held high in preparation for a vertical cut. As Neji looked back up with watery unfocused eyes, Naruto's sword sliced in a downward arc at the older Genin's left collarbone. The loud snap and the Hyuuga genius' choked cry of pain told him that his attack had broken the weak bone.

Neji fell forward from the pain of the strike. Naruto quickly moved behind him, dropping one knee on Neji's right elbow to hold the arm in place while placing the bulk of his weight on the older Genin's back to pin his body down. The blond then grabbed a handful of the Hyuuga genius' long hair and pulled his head up.

"You know Neji, you were right," Naruto hissed into his ear. "I do believe fate exists."

He shoved his hand forward to slam Neji's face into the ground before pulling back on the hair again.

"I defy every fate!"

Once more the Hyuuga geniuss' face smashed into the ground before him. This time he grunted in pain as his head was pulled back up, a small trail of blood dribbling from his broken nose.

"I grab the fate I want with my own hands!"

Naruto drove the older Genin's face into the ground for the third time. When the blond finally released his grip on Neji's hair, the Hyuuga genius did not move. He had been knocked unconscious.

A blue-sleeved hand cut in front of Naruto. The blond looked up to see the exam proctor standing over him, one arm extended to prevent him from injuring Neji any further.

"The final match's winner is Uzumaki Naruto!" Hayate declared.

Naruto pushed himself away from the unconscious Hyuuga tiredly, the effects of the fight finally catching up to him physically and mentally. Waving away the team of medics approaching him, he moved with weary steps around the hall to collect the two swords he had used during the match. He absently sealed one of the swords in its scroll and tucked the other into his belt as he headed up the stairs. His teammates were waiting for him at the top, Haku with a smiling face and Shino with his facial expression shifted ever so slightly in the way that Naruto had come to recognize as the Aburame equivalent of a smile. His sensei was there as well, having joined his teammates sometime during his fight

"Congratulations on the victory Naruto, that was a difficult fight," Haku said as her hands made small clapping motions.

Shino nodded in agreement. "Your tactical approach was quite inventive. Using the Kirigakure no Jutsu and then dispersing the mist immediately, acting as if you were blinded and tricking Neji into thinking that you were unaware of the Byakugan's abilities, all to lure him close enough for a decisive attack."

"He was a strong fighter, I couldn't find a way to attack through normal means," the blond replied. "Even after that I still had to layer in a couple more things in order to create an opening."

"Both of you fought well, but you definitely deserved that victory. You were able to overcome your opponent's bloodline ability and superior fighting skills through tenacity and clever tactics," Kurenai observed. "There's one thing I'm wondering though. Did his words get to you during the fight?"

"Because of the way I beat him into the ground at the end?" Naruto asked.

At a nod from his sensei, he continued. "I guess he did. All that talk about fate being unchangeable and how I should never have been a ninja annoyed me. I know that Jiji had to bend some rules for me. I've been working as hard as I can all this time to prove that he made the right choice, I don't need someone telling me that I was destined to fail as a ninja or that none of my effort mattered. I guess I might have gotten carried away there."

The red-eyed Jounin shrugged, pausing momentarily to glance around the hall at the other teams before turning back to reply.

"Even though the preliminaries are supposed to be life or death battles, our loyalty to each other as Konoha shinobi should supersede that. In other circumstances I might have admonished you for hurting your fellow Leaf shinobi unnecessarily. It looked to me though as if Neji had switched from tenketsu shutdown attacks to strikes aimed at causing internal injury near the end of the fight. With that in mind, I can't really fault you for ending the match decisively like that. All I'll say is congratulations on a hard-won victory, and I'm proud of you. All three of you."

* * *

Still on the floor of the hall, Hayate coughed loudly, catching the attention of all the remaining Genin in the room. Once he was sure that all eyes were on him, the sickly Tokubetsu Jounin cleared his throat to make his last announcement for the day.

"The final part of the Chunin exam will be held in one month, and will be in the form of a single elimination knockout tournament. Since some of you have shown all your abilities in the preliminaries, this is a chance to improve your skills or learn new ones. Your first matches will be determined randomly today, so you can tailor your training over the coming month based on what you know about your opponent."

The electronic signboard flashed to life again, this time displaying eight names in four lines:

Rock Lee versus Uzumaki Naruto

Sabaku no Gaara versus Aburame Shino

Fuyuno Haku versus Hyuuga Hinata

Temari versus Inuzuka Kiba

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Not much to say about this chapter. I originally intended for the prelims to be a single chapter, but the Naruto fight alone was around 5K words, so it made more sense to expand the prelims into two chapters rather than hyper-condense eight fights into the other 5K, especially since there were certain things I wanted to do with a number of the other fights.

I intended to say this with the last chapter, but forgot in the rush to update. This is a response to an unsigned review about two weeks ago. I welcome any sort of response to my work. I welcome criticism, constructive or not, and outright flames as well. I'm not going to necessarily acknowledge the validity of your point just because you took the time to write a review, but I'll read and think about it nonetheless. Don't feel like you have to sugar-coat your review (or outright refrain from leaving one) with me just because other authors have reacted badly to critical reviews in the past.

6/18/10: First Upload


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